Is Seeing Believing?: Schmucker Art Gallery’s New Exhibit

By Hanna Ackerman

Last Friday, the Schmucker Art Gallery opened its newest installation: a joint exhibit of photographic works of Nate Larson and Will Shank. The theme of the exhibit was whether or not photographs are proof enough to believe in something.

Nate Larson’s half of the exhibit is much more visually diverse than Shank’s. There are several of Larson’s series of photos on display including, “Miracles” – a series of images of religious icons that appear in everyday materials; for example, an outline of Jesus in a tortilla. Another series is the “Charlatans and Tricksters” series. This one consists of photos of a man, who was present at the opening, displaying various PG-rated bodily mutilations, like sticking a butter knife in his eye. The last and one of the most striking series is the one titled, “How I came to see the Virgin Mary.” This is made up of a sequence of images of people who believe that a likeness of the Virgin Mary has appeared in a water stain on a cement wall next to a highway. These images, while retaining the precisely beautiful composition of the preceding two series’ pictures, are much darker and hold more human desperation and faith. One of the most moving images that Larson captured is titled “Polaroids (Mary).”

Will Shank’s half of the exhibit is centered on rose petals from Mexico in which images of saints have appeared. While less visually impressive, the photos are captivating in their size and boldness of color. Put together by Shank and his partner U.B. Morgan,who builds reliquaries, the series is intriguing and poses interesting questions about how much belief people have. The most striking of these large prints is “Saint Francis with Crucifix,” because it is the best defined and with the most arresting color.

The show is definitely worth going to see – the images are intriguing both visually and intellectually, raising excellent questions about the state of faith. The gallery will be open from November 4th until December 4th displaying “Seeing is Believing?”