Cosmic Stream

(2020-2021)

How to dream with mind and matter?

“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.“
- Sophie Beerens, GUP Magazine

Cosmic Stream is a multimedia project that explores the inner world of the mind in relation to the mysteries of the universe. Inspired by daydreams, myths and scientific paradoxes, it visualizes an ambiguous cosmos that follows a stream of consciousness.

When the world turned upside down due to the global pandemic in 2020, I sought solace in a daily routine of daydreaming. During these moments of introspection, I followed the urge to let my mind wander off and create myriad imagined worlds. In Cosmic Stream, I let these various worlds come together, flowing into a visual archive where multiple realities meet.

The images result from different photographic experiments I made with collages, analog or digital transformations and by the staging of small sculptures and models. Confusing the sense of scale and origin, the images challenge our clear-cut, anthropocentric perception of reality while offering new possibilities for association and coexistence.

The project consists of a photography installation, animations, paintings, and a hand-made book. The accompanying video essay “The First Breath of the Earth” has been presented as a video installation and exists as a textual poster within the book. Through various elements, Cosmic Stream forms a surreal cosmos that shifts and blends multiple perspectives and techniques, inviting the viewer to wonder and wander through a stream of consciousness of poetic science fiction.

Exhibited at FOAM 2020, Droog 2020, Gerrit Rietveld Academie 2020, Haze Gallery 2020, Artphy 2021, murmur 2021 and Vrij Paleis 2022.

Read the interview with GUP Magazine about the project here →

See the book of the project.