Cosmic Stream: Interview with DORA LIONSTONE
Dora Lionstone's cosmic imagery is activated by the power of daydreaming, a habit she found herself increasingly drawn towards as the pandemic-stricken world began its gradual lockdown. To enter the celestial dreamscapes of Lionstone's latest project, Cosmic Stream, is to momentarily indulge in an escape from the banalities of the everyday world: forms of unidentifiable origin, beautiful in their elementary nature, drift through an unnamable landscape, free from the shackles of conventional interpretations.
One afternoon, GUP had the pleasure of conversing with Lionstone — via Zoom — about, amongst other things, how accessing this daydream world has stimulated her latest photographic project.
Let’s commence with a brief introduction about your work and a bit about your background.
I was born in Germany, but moved to the Netherlands about five years ago to switch from being a software developer to studying at the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam; that was quite a drastic change for me, and quite exciting as well. I got really excited about photography, and in finding new ways in that medium to express myself. I graduated last year with my project Cosmic Stream, which is, in general, all about finding alternative realities and mixing different perspectives and different ideas that all kind of come together and shape this alternative world.
I wanted to discuss the title of this project, Cosmic Stream. How did it come to be?
Well, for the title I actually had two kind of notions that i wanted to bring in and combine, one being this idea of a stream-of-consciousness, which was driving my process of creating all these images -- following a train of thought and starting with one idea, then letting it evolve and transform over time. This is perhaps the more practical side or level of it, and on a more abstract level, I was really fascinated by this concept of cosmic consciousness -- that there's maybe a level of awareness where we can see the universe and everything around us as part of a living organism that is really interconnected and can maybe come to life through imagination. I wanted to have all these ideas merge and flow into each other and then together create this cosmic stream -- as a kind of visual research into this very abstract concept but also as a way for the viewer to dive into these worlds and discover their own stream-of-consciousness within them.
“I was really fascinated by this concept of cosmic consciousness”
Something that I observed in your photographs is that the objects, or forms, often seem to be suspended in space. There's something ethereal about their quality, as if they're arrested in a chance photographic moment before they float, or stream, out of my line of vision. How does this relate to the fleeting quality of daydreams, in your view?
I think the fascinating thing about daydreams is that they sometimes offer us this strange sense of clarity or insight, but this is actually quite elusive -- we all know this feeling of waking up from a dream and one instant we seem to remember it very clearly while it's very hard to actually grasp it. As if the dream wants to slip away and evaporate. With the photographs, I aimed to hold onto these moments a little bit, to suspend them in something I see as a kind of liminal vacuum.
I definitely see it as this wish to detach the elements from something that grounds them or fixes them to a certain position or border. That's the nice thing about photography: it allows this impossible moment of a loss of gravity, through the creation of an image.
Oftentimes, I’m not really sure what it is I’m looking at and I don’t feel the need to even know what it is. Is this perhaps a reaction against the tendency for humans to perceive objects only in relation to themselves?
Yes! I think that’s a really nice observation that you made because, for me, there is no such thing as a single truth, nor one solution or correct answer to anything. Everything is far more complex and depends very much on the point of view and the perspective we have. I think it's important to remember that we as humans are actually quite limited in what we can perceive: it's necessary every now and then to change our perspective and see things a little bit different, to start doubting and wondering again.
So, I think what I try to do - with my images as well - is to plant a little seed of doubt into what we're seeing. I really like playing with the idea of scale too, because that is also the feeling I have when thinking about the universe. We humans sometimes think we're at the center of everything, and if you confuse the sensation of scale every now and then, I think it can offer new, interesting possibilities.
“We as humans are actually quite limited in what we can perceive”
I was wondering whether you could give us a bit of insight into the practical processes and the methods that you utilized in creating the works for Cosmic Stream.
I think, for me, there isn't a linear procedure to how I create these images. Instead, my creative process seems rather a big collage of different methods that keep changing and elements are blending intuitively. I like when these different parts come together because it almost feels like I'm searching for a common ground, to test whether segments can find a communal understanding. As if I’m a translator of foreign languages.
I think the nice thing about translations is that there is often something that gets lost along the way -- but then other things come in, maybe get distorted, or open up new explanations.
I was wondering whether the lockdown(s) we are confronted with for almost a year now have altered your approach to the photographic process. Did you end up developing new ways of circumventing the spatial limitations and any of the restrictions?
I would say that the lockdown reinforced this idea that I can find a lot of solace and a lot of insight through the act of daydreaming, which I was pursuing more actively in that period.
“I can find a lot of solace and a lot of insight through the act of daydreaming”
Do you also consciously set a specific time for yourself to daydream?
I didn't need to set a time. I was just basically laying on the sofa, literally not doing anything and just letting my mind wander -- I really felt the need to do that, because everything else felt so uncertain and confusing. I needed to investigate my inner space, and I realized that we actually have so much space, but within us, within our minds and it's maybe a matter of unlocking that. I also felt a lot of comfort in continuing working with the images and I could create them from home -- I didn't need to be in a specific location, or to depend on certain people. Maybe it's all about trying to be resourceful with what you have around you, discovering the mysteries within your own home -- I at least tried to challenge myself in that way.
Dora Lionstone is a German photographer based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The project featured here is available as a publication on her website, and will also be featured in the upcoming exhibition Artphy Jong Talent 2020 taking place in Onstwedde.
