Through her photo exhibition “Conjuring the Consecrated,” multimedia artist Cherie Buck-Hutchison has created a collection of digitally-altered photos that reflect the patriarchal religious roles of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s in a new light by placing women in leadership roles within the picture. The show will debut in the Bokeh Gallery at MonOrchid on First Friday.
The opening reception will be held Feb. 5 from 6-10 p.m., when Buck-Hutchison will provide history and background of her work.
She attributes her work in “Conjuring the Consecrated” to a finding that she made about her church group a few years ago.
“Originally in 2012, I learned via the Internet that the religious organization that I grew up in had been exposed for having a secret book for elders,” Buck-Hutchison said. “Which means every man that I knew growing up knew about the book and didn’t tell their wives, didn’t tell their daughters, and I felt betrayed.”
Buck-Hutchison said the project originated when she went back through old documents from her family.
“I got out old slides as references, slides that my parents had taken in the ’50s and the ’60s when I was a very young child. A couple of them fell on top of each other and created meaning, and that’s how it started,” Buck-Hutchison said.
Buck-Hutchison describes “Conjuring the Consecrated” as a project that inherently alludes to a magical, imaginative Southwest of the future — a Southwest where women can carry out positions of leadership within the clergy and within communities around the world.
Nicole Royse, curator of Shade Projects at MonOrchid, followed Buck-Hutchison’s projects, worked with her in the past and played a major role in the presentation of this show.
“The last time I showed her was in a big group in March, which was called ‘Feminism Today,’” Royse said. “A lot of her work involves issues regarding feminism, which this show does.”
In “Conjuring the Consecrated,” Buck-Hutchison attributes her childhood upbringing within a patriarchal church community as a direct cause of her interest in feminism.
“I am referencing my own subjective experience because I was raised within this patriarchal system where women were actually ‘lesser,’” Buck-Hutchison said.
Royse shares a connection with Buck-Hutchison’s work as a curator, writer and fellow artist.
“To me, her work shows that as women, we play a vital role in our community and in our families. Not just back then but today, and we take on more roles now,” Royse said.
Buck-Hutchison’s collaborative photos strike a chord with art historian, arts writer and curator Brittany Corrales, who has followed Buck-Hutchison’s work actively.
“‘Conjuring the Consecrated’ is a powerful and focused body of work,” Corrales said in an email interview. “Her careful blending of images results in a dreamlike quality, like a faded memory, but the women in her photos are fully alive. She seamlessly merges the past with the present.”
Buck-Hutchison illustrates the significance of 21st-century feminism through her style of artistic expression.
“Feminism has really been helpful in the scheme of things, and work like hers keeps it in the forefront, reminding us that there’s still a long way to go, but we have made progress,” Royse said.
Through her work, Buck-Hutchison tries to connect with women in the modern-day art scene by giving them the chance to observe and appreciate the path and progress of feminism as it stands today.
“Cherie’s work challenges the ostensible ‘great strides’ we have made toward gender equality in Western society since the midcentury. From casual street harassment to domestic and sexual violence, the marginalization and dehumanization of women lives on — it persists in a more sinister, dismissive way,” Corrales said.
“Conjuring the Consecrated” will be on display in the Bokeh Gallery from Feb. 5-28 with a closing reception that will take place from 6-10 p.m. on Feb. 28.
Contact the reporter at brianna.bradley@asu.edu.
