Psychometry

About

Claire Haddon, Peter Jones, Nick Kaplony, Sean Langton, Debbie Lawson, Sophie Molins, Michaela Nettell and Tom Simmons, Richard Paul, Helen Pynor, Melanie Stidolph, Karen Stripp. Curated by Nick Kaplony

Core Gallery is delighted to present Psychometry, an exhibition of works by 12 contemporary artists that channel and manifest the intangible and invisible through their work. The exhibition takes its title from a practice employed by psychics and mediums, whereby past events and personal histories are divined through physical contact with an object.

Psychometry includes photography, video, installation, sculpture and previously unseen work and considers the parallel between the artistic and psychometric practitioner from a number of approaches. Some exhibits utilise or reinterpret the found object: Sophie Molins' presents sumptuously dark images of her deceased mother's shoelaces frozen in a moment of telekinetic suspension, Peter Jones' intense portraits of stuffed monkeys appear imbued with life and character by the wear and tear of their histories. Other works allow us to experience invisible forces, such as Sean Langton's curious brass cubes, which enable the visitor to listen to the sounds of the ether. Considering the connection between the physical and intangible, Helen Pynor's exquisite photographs on glass look parts of the body as a repository for the storage of memory, through its aches, pains and its various other ways of speaking.
Psychometry also known as token-object reading,or psychoscopy, is a form of extra-sensory perception characterized by the ability to make relevant associations from an object of unknown history by making physical contact with that object. Psychics assert that an object may have an energy field that transfers knowledge regarding that object's history. Psychometry is commonly demonstrated at psychic fairs as a type of psychic reading. At New Age events psychometry has been used to help visitors "meet the dearly departed" (a form of spiritualism). Although a subject of controversy, psychics who use psychometry have been used by law enforcement "as a last resort [and] as an investigative tool with caution" for providing clues not directly admissible in the court of law such as a criminal's character, or the location of dead bodies.