Reading Hands
This project draws from the concept of hand reading in Palmistry—a pseudoscientific practice of fortune-telling through the study of the palm—and represents various terms and elements of the practice through the visual medium of photography. By mapping the act of reading from the physical palms to a visual image, the potential for interpretation has been expanded. Through this, the project questions the premise of the practice, while also inviting the audience to partake in the act of reading hands and the photographs.
In the construction and conceptualisation of this project, the act of reading has, for me, encompassed the entire hand rather than just the palm. I have utilised the terms and elements of palmistry in three ways—Symbolic Representation, Creative Reinterpretation, and Meta Representation.
In the first set of representations, the symbolic meaning of terms and elements within palmistry is visually represented in the photograph.
The second set follows a reinterpretation of terms within palmistry with or without any necessary reference to their symbolic meaning. The reinterpretations and references could be to the literal meaning of the term, the conceptual meaning of the term, or the physical location of an element within palmistry.
The photographs falling in the last set work to make meta references to the practice of palmistry, my act of taking photographs, or both simultaneously.
My project invites the audience to participate in the act of reading as a way of subverting the very practice of palmistry. I aim to challenge the premise of palmistry, not only because it is a pseudoscience, but also because of the internal inconsistencies and often reaching reasoning the practice utilises. Therefore, by visually representing the terms and elements through the three methods mentioned before, my project begs the question: Does it even matter?
Does the practice of palmistry matter? Does the looseness of my interpretations within the project matter? Do the audience’s interpretations of the photographs matter? Does this project even matter? Does it matter if it doesn’t make sense? Does it matter if it does make sense?
The audience can look at these photographs and think that they are good, or they can think they are not. They can think that my interpretations and representations make sense, they can think they do not, they can even have a different interpretation of the photographs, or they can have interpretations that I have not thought of.