"Afrofuturist neurodiversity" is the promise at Brighton Festival
She brings Distorted Constellations to the Brighton Festival from May 4-19, 12-7pm (closed Mondays and Tuesdays, Lighthouse, 28 Kensington Street, Brighton, BN1 4AJ; admission free).Nwando, who has released records with support from Giles Peterson and created music videos as her alter ego Lady Vendredi, is offering a multisensory, immersive as part of Malian musician Rokia Traoré’s 2019 Brighton Festival. Watch a trailer here.
Spokeswoman Chloë Barker said: “Distorted Constellations is an Afrofuturist alternative reality inspired by Afrodiasporic ritual and informed by Ebizie’s research into the neuroscience of perception and her experience of Visual Snow – a rare neurological disorder causing visual distortions such as flickering dots, auras and glowing lines – defined just five years ago in 2014.
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Hide Ad“For the exhibition, Ebizie will transform Lighthouse into a site specific labyrinth of partitions, holograms and architectural elements that guide the audience through flickering dots, auras and glowing lines, to experience Ebizie’s mythic interpretation of Visual Snow and her own neurodivergency.
“A series of events including dance workshops and talks by neuroscientists will punctuate the exhibition programme.
“Distorted Constellations forms part of the public sharing of a research project supported by Wellcome that aims to increase our understanding of rare neurological disorders and the nature of sense perception.”
Nwando said: “I want to help people understand that their limited window on reality is subjective. This immersive installation externalises my internal reality, demonstrating and normalising the subjectivity of perception.
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Hide Ad“I invite everybody to be a scientist, to strive to break our own realities, and search out nuance, ambiguity and diversity in the world. Do the things and think about things that make us uncomfortable. Understand how our perceptions feed into cognitive bias and understand how – neurologically speaking – we are all on a spectrum of neurodiversity.”
Alli Beddoes, artistic director and CEO of Lighthouse, added: “I am delighted Lighthouse will be hosting Distorted Constellations for Brighton Festival this year. Nwando Ebizie is an extraordinary artist, challenging our perceptions of reality by guiding us through a multisensory journey of neuroscience, magic, ritual and mythology. Exhibitions like this highlight the importance of Lighthouse’s role in contemporary culture.”
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