Celestial Brainstorm is a large-scale interactive illuminated sculptural object. A rotating lantern, it mimics the lanterns found in children’s bedrooms at night. Just as these are intended to keep darkness at bay and create a sense of safety, so this project banishes darkness, and flickering lights fill the darkest moments of the night. This work reframes the sometimes alienating patterns of brain scans and highlights the beautiful creative possibilities that can emerge from disruptive experiences and irregular brain activity.
Having grown up with photosensitive epilepsy, Amelia has always been fascinated and repelled by light and the effect that it has on the brain. Flashing lights can result in a seizure, whereas flickering lights are mesmerising and enchanting. With Celestial Brainstorm, Amelia hoped to capture this second state while actually using neuron patterns to create the effect of a constantly moving starry sky. The title of the piece reclaims the term ‘brainstorm’ which is used to describe a seizure but which has historically been used to mean a period of intense thought or creativity.
This suspended installation, commissioned by Artichoke and created by Amelia, her team Ben Wallace and Liam Strong alongside support from Unusual Rigging and local company Dyer Engineering, combines the techniques of early photography, lanterns and projection with contemporary technologies of LED lighting and automated rotation.
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About the artist
Amelia Kosminsky is a visual artist working in different elements of light focusing in video design, light sculpture and photography. She studied photography at London College of Communications and Video Design for Live Performance at Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Prior to Guildhall, Amelia worked on Lumiere Durham, Lumiere London and One & Other for Anthony Gormely, commissioned by the Mayor of London. Whilst at Guildhall, she worked on Waddesdon Imaginarium as the assistant designer, collaboratively on Light Odyssey for the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra for Lightpool and as a solo designer on Hungariana for Gerard McBurney and the Barbican. After leaving the degree, Amelia has been the video designer for a concert for Esa-Pekka Salonen, Gerard McBurney and the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in September 2019 and has a light sculpture that premiered in the tenth anniversary festival of Lumiere Durham 2019. This piece, Celestial Brainstorm, was shortlisted for the Unlimited Commission for the Turner Contemporary Gallery in Margate in 2018.
Amelia's practice is focused on slowing day to day life down to have time to see the beauty around us. A large part of this practice is influenced by her experience with a number of hidden disabilities including epilepsy and mental health difficulties which are explored within her work. All these conditions feed into her work. Amelia has been a mental health campaigner since her teenage years and has always tried to create work that addresses the stresses and strains of daily life. She also likes to highlight issues of mental health, which are frequently not discussed, by placing her work in very public surroundings. As a result, Amelia's work is predominately peaceful, contemplative and quiet, using light as a medium to produce striking images that contrast with the harshness of urban living. Life can be very stressful and she likes to give people a moment to be able to take some time and observe something beautiful centered around a subtly challenging issue.
You can visit Amelia’s website and follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
Title page image credit: Ben Wallace
