"Hold infinity in the palm of your hand..."

February 12, 2006 6:30 AM

"There are chakrahs in our hands, Jesus had nail holes in his palms, and a sign of worship is to stand with your palms raised. Fortune tellers read palms. Handwriting is analyzed to expose deep secrets. Man’s thumbs differentiate humans from lower species....We control our world with our hands, and our hands are shaped by our world." -- The Manual Project by Bill Westheimer. "Using 19th century collodion wet plate photography I photograph their dominant hand, then we work together to make a photogram of their palm print. Combining these two images together with the person’s handwriting, I create one portrait of the subject. "
posted by Gator (12 comments total)

Also, also, previously.
posted by Gator at 6:31 AM on February 12, 2006

Is it my imagination or are reposts ( even for excellent subjects such as this) becoming more common? It seems like the only part of the internet that's actually growing is the blogosphere. The rest is getting mined out.

Anyway, don't forget the Gou'ald alien hand devices in Stargate that shoot energy from the equivalent of the hand chakrah. And the aliens in Atlantis have mouths in their hands - not a particularly original image, but an enduring and haunting one that's been a fixture of surrealist painting for almost a century. The upraised hand as the universal symbol of peace also springs to mind.
posted by slatternus at 6:50 AM on February 12, 2006

It's not a repost; I just like to include related threads, when I can. I should probably be more clear about that in future ("related" as opposed to "previously").
posted by Gator at 6:54 AM on February 12, 2006

Ooops. That's probably me leaping to conclusions too. Well, I take it all back about the internet. It's an exponentially expanding universe of limitless novelty!
posted by slatternus at 7:00 AM on February 12, 2006

But Jesus didn't have nail holes through his palms...
posted by Hildegarde at 7:03 AM on February 12, 2006

I guess you can say, Jesus has been depicted with nail holes in his hands...
posted by Atreides at 7:31 AM on February 12, 2006

The hair on my palms shorted out my chakras.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 7:39 AM on February 12, 2006

Do chimpanzees and apes have opposable thumbs?
posted by alumshubby at 7:58 AM on February 12, 2006

good post, thanks
posted by matteo at 8:27 AM on February 12, 2006

Feh.

Those hand pictures would have been so much better if the photographer had bothered to use the Zone System.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 9:17 AM on February 12, 2006

kind of, alumshabby, but the shapes of their fingers and the layout of their hands is much more suitable for grasping tree trunks and walking on them. Our thumbs are much more mobile, able to form an "o" with any other finger.

This is kinda cool, but the pretense is unbearable. Who cares about a bunch of unrelated superstitions? The hands are important, but don't dress it up with mysticism.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 12:53 PM on February 12, 2006

The nails would have had to have gone through his wrists to hold his weight on the cross, nails through the hands wouldn't have done it.
posted by Poagao at 2:30 AM on February 13, 2006