Of all divination practices, palm reading, also known as chiromancy or palmistry, is one of the most highly regarded. Though its precise origins remain unknown, it's believed that palmistry began in ancient India, spreading throughout the Eurasian landmass to China, Tibet, Persia, Egypt, and Greece. In fact, Aristotle detailed palm reading in his work De Historia Animalium (History of Animals) 2,500 years ago. It was his view that "Lines are not written into the human hand without reason.

After falling out of favor around the Middle Ages, palmistry underwent a monumental  revival in the 19th century as interest in the occult grew. Chirological societies were founded to promote and advance the practice in the United Kingdom and the United States; palm readers such as the Dublin-born William John Warner, known by his pseudonym, Cheiro, amassed global followings. By the mid-1900s, palmistry was fully integrated within American pop culture.

Simply put, palmistry is the art of analyzing the physical features of the hands to interpret personality characteristics and predict future happenings. Chiromancy analyses are time-honored: Just as our ancient ancestors gazed into the night sky and created powerful correspondences between the movements of the planets and events here on  Earth, palm readers observe how the hand's attributes connect to greater themes.     Occult traditions are based on the esoteric axiom "As above, so below," and within   palmistry, the palm is accordingly seen as a microcosm of the universe.

" 1954, up-and-coming U.S. marshal Teddy Daniels is assigned to investigate the disappearance of a patient from Boston's Shutter Island Ashecliffe Hospital. He's been pushing for an assignment on the island for personal reasons, but before long he thinks he's been brought there as part of a twisted plot by hospital doctors whose radical treatments range from unethical to illegal to downright sinister. Teddy's shrewd investigating skills soon provide a promising lead, but the hospital refuses him access to records he suspects would break the case wide open. As a hurricane cuts off communication with the mainland, more dangerous criminals "escape" in the confusion, and the puzzling, improbable clues multiply, Teddy begins to doubt everything - his memory, his partner, even his own sanity."

I really like this movie because then I thought about the idea of perspective and illusions and then you bring these with the idea of identity this story is a much more rare case where the main character sanity is challenged as he has developed a whole different persona for him to get away from his true identity. Which is why I think this works so well because my question is- how do you identify someone with multiple disorders? 

People that suffer from Delusional Disorder or multiple disorders have created a whole world in which they have either detached themselves from their true identity or they have created multiple identities. As the main character created fictional characters by using anagrams from his name, and the names of his loved one. 

I really want to play with the idea of identity and what identity is defined by. I want to think more about how i can take the idea of "perception' and illusions to the next level. 

Gareth Pugh

Parker Day is a Los Angeles-based artist whose work explores identity and the masks we wear.

Her focus is on fictionalized portraiture shot exclusively in-studio on 35mm film. She is currently completing ICONS, a series of 100 character portraits, which will be presented in a solo show at Superchief Gallery LA in February 2017, coinciding with the release of her first monograph.

Manish Arora Autumn/winter 2011 at Paris Fashion Week

"A 'Russian illusionist' in flowing black silk robes, performed extraordinary tricks, making models appear and disappear from a glass case, a wooden chest and a ring of fire at the Manish Arora show at the Paris prêt-à-porter season.

Arora's collection, for autumn/winter 2011, was inspired by the magic dolls of the German artist, Annie Hoffstater, and his own theatrical, exuberant approach to life. Designs were multicolored and patch-worked in silk, velvet, satin, stretch and fur, and embellished with pearl-coated embroidery, and crystals. Body-conscious dresses came with metallic sequinned harnesses and panniers. A fox stole, with winking green eyes and wearing a crown, was draped over a velvet dress, and three-dimensional fans, shells, and mystical symbols embellished jackets. Elaborate ball gowns came in purple and gold vinyl, laser cut with thousands of tiny circles."

http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/news-features/TMG8359684/Manish-Arora-autumnwinter-2011-at-Paris-Fashion-Week.html

An illusion is a distortion of the senses, which can reveal how the human brain normally organizes and interprets sensory stimulation. Though illusions distort our perception of reality, they are generally shared by most people.[1]

Illusions may occur with any of the human senses, but visual illusions (optical illusions) are the best-known and understood. The emphasis on visual illusions occurs because vision often dominates the other senses. For example, individuals watching a ventriloquist will perceive the voice is coming from the dummy since they are able to see the dummy mouth the words.

I really like the way these images have been collaged. I will use these images as    inspiration in my sketchbook to develop my ideas further and to work on illusions and identity. 

I will use these images as I will try out the techniques like collaging 2 or more contrasted images to form an idea/form of expression  and to give it a different perception.  

When I thought about the word illusion I thought about magic. The distortion of something or making something disappear. I thought the same with identity- you can change your passport or your name and give the illusion that you are someone that you're not. 

How appearance affects identity

Rosanna Jones

"The project was inspired by this Franois de La Rochefoucauld quote: “We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves.” How we feel about our own skin color, body shape, hair, eye color, and even age can affect how we present ourselves to the world. Through the project, Jones questions ideas of beauty in regards to how a person feels internally compared to how a person is perceived by the outside world.

Each composition is a mix of paints layered on top of a digital photo collage. Jones works with a palette of pastels that blend with the subject’s body. The striking colors and milky white skin merge together in a blur of alluring disfigurement".

I really like the idea of deciding what to show and what not to show.  

As I developed my project, we came up with the idea of distorted identity and what I did is take pictures of my face and my partner's and I merged them together by collaging and drawing.   

ADOLPH CHEVALLIER was a Romanian photographer born in 1881 in the village of Brosteni (Neamt county, Moldavia) to a Swiss-French father and a Romanian mother.

After finishing his studies in Romania, Chevallier goes to Lausanne to study photography. He returns to Romania in 1921 and receives a license as a photographer of the Royal Court.

Chessboard, Large Version (Original Painted Plaster) 1959

constant1920-2005 
After us, liberty 1949- Apres nous la liberte