Paradoxical Lucidity is an arts installation, which was presented at 'Garage Imaginaries' alongside the work of nine artists researchers.

Garage Imaginaries is a series of art interventions in the empty Belsyre Garage buildings, 72 Woodstock Road, Oxford. The All Maps Welcome Research Group developed this project’s first full-scale exhibition in collaboration with the Associate Artists Scheme at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies.

The exhibition, which was presented on 14-17 November 2024, was co-curated by Dr Poyan Yee and Professor Chris Dorsett, director of the Associate Artists Scheme.

The collaboration was led by All Maps Welcome researchers Dr Jolande Bosch (Piet Swart Institute) and Dr Christina Kolaiti (York St John University). It included works by Dr Andrew McNiven, Dr John Lavell, Dr Alexandra Rowe, Dr Lucy O'Donnell, Uuendy Lau and Catherine Flexen.

Kolaiti, C. (2024) Paradoxical Lucidity, in Garage Imaginaries [exhibition catalogue], pp. 16-19.

“Episode of unexpected, spontaneous, meaningful, and relevant communication or connectedness in a patient who is assumed to have permanently lost the capacity for coherent verbal or behavioural interaction due to a progressive and pathophysiological dementing process.” i (Paradoxical lucidity)

This installation builds upon The Teddy Bear Cabinet, a body of research which explores early attachment as a “lasting psychological connectedness between human beings”, within a landscape of disconnection, low nurture and self-alienation. ii

A similar, yet unexplained experience of connectedness defined as ‘paradoxical lucidity’ occurs as a brief episode of mental clarity in people who temporarily regain the ability to communicate after their capacity to do so appears lost. iii
This neurobiological phenomenon signifies a spontaneous episode of “meaningful and relevant communication” in the hours before death.iv

Such ephemeral self-realisation – the floating teddy bear installation at Garage Imaginaries – discerns authentic recollections of attachment, loss and letting go. ____________________________________________
i i Mashour GA, Frank L, Batthyany A, et al. (2019) Paradoxical lucidity: a potential paradigm shift for the neurobiology and treatment of
severe dementias. Alzheimers Dementia [8, p.1107].
(Accessed: 25 October 2024)
ii Bowlby, J. (1969) Attachment. Attachment and loss: Vol. 1. Loss. New York: Basic Books.
iii Alzheimer’s Association (2021) Peterson, A, Clapp, J, Largent, A, E, Harkins, K, Stites, D. H, Karlawish, J. (2 August 2021) What is paradoxical lucidity? The answer begins with its definition. Available at: https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/alz.12424. (Accessed: 25 October 2024).
iv ibid, 2019, p.1107.