Smoke and Mirrors: A Journey to Healing Knowledge
photography by Vance Gellert
Nov 15 - Jan 10, 2009
City Gallery at Waterfront Park
Image Gallery
Events
Nov 14 [lecture] Alumni Hall (Inside Randolph Hall) College of Charleston, Halsey Members Only
Nov 15 [Opening Reception] 5-7PM City Gallery at Waterfront Park - 34 Prioleau Street
Nov 16 [lecture & Tour] 4PM City Gallery at Waterfront Park (Free and open to the public)
Bio
Vance Gellert is a pharmacologist who expanded his research horizons and ways of knowing through photography. Always being convinced that use of plant medicines by traditional communities was the best resource for discovery of new medicines, he went to Mexico on a quest of understanding after postdoctoral research in pharmacology. Realizing he needed special tools to understand traditional healing he returned to pursue an MFA in photography. His work earned her numerous fellowships and grants including an artist fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. His work has been shown and published nationally and internationally. In 2003 he began devoting his time to studying traditional healing rituals and medicines in South America through photography and field research. This work has earned him recognition in the world of art with a recent exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Art as well as collaborations with the Integrative Medicine program at the Mayo Clinic, and other medical institutions. His work is dedicated to finding ways to use photography to help understand the healing processes of indigenous and traditional medicine and incorporate it into western clinical practice.
The project is entitled Smoke and Mirrors: A Journey to Healing Knowledge, a title he decided on after realizing that the healing effects of ritual and ceremony were integral to and often superceded the value of healing techniques and plant medicines. The work generated to date was gathered over eight months time in Bolivia and Peru spread over five separate journeys. Rather than working in the documentary mode, he formed relationships with communities and healers. He interviewed the healers on their philosophy and plant medicines and witnessed or participated in healing ceremonies. With this insight he worked collaboratively with the healers to make photographs that capture and convey the healing experience and environment. His work is richly embellished with his knowledge of pharmacology and extensive reading of the anthropology, sociology and science writings on the healing process.
Sponsors
Smoke and Mirrors: A Journey to Healing Knowledge is sponsored by the City of Charleston's Office of Cultural Affairs and co-sponsored by the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston and the Medical University of South Carolina.
