Rheomantic Drawings, Set of 40 graphite drawings in custom bound cloth cover kit, includes magnet, water glass, index, instructions and text by Paul Carter.
Installation views of Rheomantic Drawings at the 2012 NotFair, Melbourne. Visitors selected a symptom appropriate drawing which was embedded magnetically into water and it was decanted into a paper cup and consumed. After drinking the drawing, participants experienced relief from their various conditions ranging from anxiety, or fear, hangovers or a broken heart.
See also:
Writings: Rheomancy, Paul Carter
Writings: NotFair
…Now I in you, without a body move…
– George Herbert
These drawings are actually machines. Metaphysical machines. They are vehicles of intimate exchange between us. They evolved out of my desire to understand what drawing can be, and I suppose, to challenge the traditional ideas of experiencing a work of art and its consumption. These drawings are also based on decades of scientific research done by Dr. Malcolm Rae who perceived the world and its many exchanges as a sea of electromagnetic vibration. Rae felt that everything, people, plants, animals, rocks are just standing waves and that everything can be communicated through this energetic field. He was a healer and had great success in curing people of their ailments using subtle energy. What Rae found was that every substance has its own energetic ‘fingerprint’ regardless of the quantity or format of the material. The energetic aura of a substance is the same whether you have one particle or a truckload of it. So these simple patterns are derived from the radiesthetic patterns of a natural material with healing properties. By analysing the phenomenon of ‘energy field signatures’, he found that if he placed a geometric representation of a healing substance into a magnetic field, the healing properties of that substance could be duplicated into a neutral medium such as water. The radiesthetic shape is created by plotting the edges of a substances vibrational outline. Rae found you needed only a minimum of 8 points to replicate the aura, these corresponding to the eight compass directions (n,s,e,w,ne,nw,se,sw). The dot you see on the patterns are the energetic centre of the substance and the magnet and vial of water is to be placed centrally over this dot. Water is known to be very susceptible to both magnetic fields and energetic intention, actually changing its crystalline form. Dr. Masaru Emoto showed this to great effect with his water molecule experiments. Our bodies are almost entirely water so it’s the perfect mode of transfer. By adhering to the logic that everything is vibration and that water will absorb the vibrational intention, I’ve included my own drawings as well, loaded with my own thoughts, feelings and words… It’s all the same, moving through this field. All drawings regardless of their origin are meant to relieve some type of discomfort or imbalance, whether it be physical, emotional or intellectual. There’s no hierarchy here, no grand proclamations. Constipation can be as excruciating as Heartache depending on the day…
Oh, and remember, if you aren’t experiencing anything after ingesting these drawings, make sure you take the drawing labeled ‘Resistance’ and try again.
CJ Conway, 2012