About
Amelia Kosminsky is a visual artist focusing in light sculpture, video art and photography.
Her practice is focused on slowing life down to have time to see the beauty around us. A large part of this practice is influenced by her experience with hidden disabilities including epilepsy and mental health difficulties which are explored within her work. Having photosensitive epilepsy has resulted in a fascination with light. All these conditions feed into her work. Amelia has been a mental health campaigner since her teenage years and likes to highlight issues of mental health, which is 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 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.
Experience
She studied photography at London College of Communications and Video Design for Live Performance at Guildhall School. Prior to Guildhall, Amelia worked on Lumiere Durham, Lumiere London and One & Other for Anthony Gormley. 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.
Light Sculpture
Amelia’s first piece of Light Sculpture was ‘Let Her Shine’ (now known as Let Her Shine: The Original), which was shown in Lumiere Durham 2009 as one of the originating young artist piece. A dress made of light, created using rope light simply showed female beauty. This piece has subsequently been developed into a wider collection, exploring the different ways that women chose to express themselves through the clothes that they wear. Each of these new pieces are ready for commissioning and touring at request.
In 2019, Amelia created ‘Celestial Brainstorm’, a large-scale interactive illuminated sculptural object. A rotating lantern, it mimics the lanterns found in children’s bedrooms at night. In ‘Celestial Brainstorm’ the piece explores attitudes to disability, highlighting the positive creative expression that can emerge from a disruptive experience. Particularly the disruptive brain patterns that cause epileptic seizures as electrical impulses surge unpredictably through the brain. ‘Celestial Brainstorm’ premiered at the tenth anniversary festival of Lumiere Durham in 2019. In 2022, ‘Celestial Brainstorm’ was one of five pieces selected and shown for City Lights, The Mayor of London’s light festival. It was shown at Bloomberg Plaza.
‘Phantasma’, a new light installation by Amelia, premiered in November at Christmas at Kew Gardens 2021. This experiential piece literally offers light at the end of the tunnel. Using colour psychology and visual perception, it tricks the eye and reshapes sensation and emotion. It explores the connections between vision and the other senses, creating an oasis where the public can enjoy a moment of serenity, calm and hope.
Video Art
Following a collaboration with Gerard McBurney for the Barbican whilst at Guildhall School, Amelia was been the video artist for a concert for Esa-Pekka Salonen, Gerard McBurney and the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in September 2019 (Weimar: To The Caberet!) and in 2021 Amelia designed a new visual art piece for Sir Simon Rattle, Gerard McBurney and the London Symphony Orchestra for their new concert of ‘The Individual Heart: a loving portrait of Percy Grainger’. This piece was all created from original source photography from Amelia over the years, and designed to fit the vocals of Roger Allam reading Percy Grainger’s letters. This piece was streamed and broadcast internationally on Marquee TV.
At Lumiere Durham 2021, Amelia has created a video artwork to accompany renowned UK poets in their new commissions for Anthology - Into the Light which was projected onto Durham Castle in 2021.
Amelia created a fourteen piece long video artwork for the concert of the album ‘Freedom to Roam’. The project traverses themes such as climate change, conflict, environmental destruction, rewilding, restriction, empathy and what it means to be displaced without choice. Alongside a documentary of the same name, the first performance took place in Cecil Sharp House in December 2021.
Acclaim and Other Work
Amelia’s piece ‘Celestial Brainstorm’ was shortlisted for the Unlimited Commission for the Turner Contemporary Gallery in Margate in 2018. Since then, Amelia has worked for Bloomsbury Festival for their Creative Development lab and with Duncan McClean for Jamie Lloyd and with Will Duke for Grange Park Opera. She has also taught at both Guildhall School and Italia Conti. She was featured in Mainspring Arts’s Two Metres ApART digital museum showcasing amazing work by neurodivergent artists.
In 2021 Amelia was awarded an Arts Council ‘Develop Your Creative Practice’ Grant. She was also long listed for the Aesthetica Art Prize 2021 with her work for Hungariana. The pieces were published in Aesthetica Art Prize Anthology: Future Now with the book described as showcasing ‘the work of 125 of the most exciting artists from around the world and is a dynamic guide to international contemporary art’.
To contact Amelia, please email amelia.kosminsky@gmail.com