Laura Richard Janku is editor-in-chief of Artweek, a monthly publication that has been covering contemporary visual art on the West Coast for thirty-six years. A freelance writer and curator, Laura contributes to many catalogues, magazines and Web sites.
Humans will forever be seeking the meaning of life and an understanding of any number of much smaller mysteries: prophetic dreams, perplexing medical conditions, winning lottery numbers. Nate Larson’s photographs document the varied and surprising systems that we look to for guidance.
Each of Larsons’ images illustrates the process and result of a particular method of divination and is usually accompanied by a helpful description. While the practices range from the ridiculous to the antiquated—reading the forms that result from pouring melted wax into water; dangling a pendulum over a map to determine a location; signs on cards to communicate with UFOs—they are all still in use in modern times. The dark backgrounds shroud them in a séance-like mystery that is offset by his systematic and detached quasi-scientific systematic approach. Larson’s willingness to engage with unorthodox methods coupled with his straightforward language leaves the arcane practices wide open for interpretation.
But Larson doesn’t just examine the fringes of credulity. He also takes on less laughable indicators that admittedly enrich or help to guide our science and tech-driven lives. Why not let a fortune cookie decide your lotto numbers? Who doesn’t feel a special bond with someone who has your same name or birthday? Whether coincidence is a sign of a higher power or just a statistical probability, we can’t help but interpret it as having some meaning, whether delightful or ominous. This, in and of itself, reflects the human need for signposts—of any kind—along our unscripted journey.
The believer will see Larson’s photographs as testament; the skeptic as ironic postmodern exercise. But one reading is clear: No matter how rational and scientific we are, there will always be wiggle room for the unexplained—it’s what keeps life interesting.
