“Smaller Sunflower Doorway”
The Walter Art Gallery is pleased to present “A Veil of Two Entities,” a show by local artist Cherie Buck-Hutchison opening on March 18 with a reception from 6:30 to 9:30pm. In a loose parallel with Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities,” Buck-Hutchison presents a cautionary tale about unquestioned submission to authority.
In this solo show, Buck-Hutchison deliberately deploys magical thinking to repair and reinvent an authoritarian narrative within the walls of a religious commune. Her work makes real the veiled psychological behavior within the administration of power while revisiting her family’s personal history as founding members. Buck-Hutchison explores the uncomfortable agreement between authority, intervention, and memory in the gossamer layers of her images.
You will see enchanted gifts layered onto buildings and rooms in communal housing at Mary’s City of David in Benton Harbor, Michigan: a deer rests on a bed, a closet is transformed into a kitchen, and extra housing materializes along a wooden staircase. She investigates the role of threat along with political sanctuary in her seemingly serene silk photographs. The lift of an organza veil reveals depictions of welcoming hands, statuary and a sound bowl at uneasy odds with threat-related imagery including carnivorous flora, swastikas, regulated clothing, potential disasters, and tactical text.
Cherie Buck-Hutchison has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Intermedia from Arizona State University. She is an All-American Scholarship recipient and was named one of the Top 100 Creatives in Phoenix, Arizona in 2016 by The New Times. She is also a recipient of the inaugural Carmody Foundation Community Grant as well as a Research and Development Grant from Arizona Commission for the Arts. Her work has been shown locally as well as nationally.
A Veil of Two Entities will run from March 18 to April 22nd, 2022. There will be receptions on the opening and the closing dates from 6:30 to 9:30pm. Guests are asked to wear masks to help protect the most vulnerable in our community. The show can also be seen by appointment by emailing gallery@thewalterhive.org. The Walter Art Gallery is located at 6425 E. Thomas Road, Scottsdale, AZ.