Grant Gill: Dowsing - LENSCRATCH

Grant Gill: Dowsing by Aline SmithsonApril 16, 2013

Grant Gill, Works in Progress

To echo my sentiments from yesterday’s post, it is with great pleasure that I present the BFA Thesis project of Grant Gill and celebrate his exhibition that opens on April 19th at Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. For the past 9 months, Grant has been a vital part of LENSCRATCH, working with fellow student Sarah Stankey (who I featured yesterday) on the exhibitions, the tumblr site, and much more. It’s with great appreciation that I raise a toast to Grant and happily launch him into the fine art photography community. His project, Dowsing, is a series that touches upon the idea of chance creating an unchartered future, and providing an unexpected direction and result.

Grant is currently finishing his BFA in photography from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. His work deals with concepts of personal ancestry, veracity, and magic. Recently he has found interest in examining phenomena that are unexplained. He is an avid believer of divination, Street Light Interference Phenomena, and other similar ideas hold some truth to their claims. His work has been in various exhibitions, the most recent being at the PhotoPlace Gallery in Vermont.

Dowsing

I picked up my first dowsing rod as a child, in the yard of my grandparent’s country home. I would find crystalline geodes that I would later learn my grandfather had staged. Surrounded by unusual family stories and fabled traditions, I grew up with the possibilities of magic. Now, as I edge closer changes in my life, I struggle with the idea of what is to come. I have come full circle, back to a stick, a stick that, at least for a moment, offers me a path to follow.

Dowsing I

Dowsing is a historical form of divination where underground wells or precious minerals are found with tree branches or metal rods. It is widely perceived as pseudo-science, yet people around the world claim legitimacy to its treasure hunting properties. The guided action, divine or otherwise, plays on opportunity and chance.

I now consider myself a practical believer when it comes to stories of the paranormal and the phenomenological. My first instinct is always to consider the possibility of the unusual, though I am grounded by science and common sense. I am constantly torn between my convictions of what cannot be proven, and a world supported by facts. By using this process of divination, these self-fulfilled findings are not expected, and give me some insight to this unexplained phenomenon.