NYAB Event - Marla Rutherford "Cake Knife"

Marla Rutherford "Cake Knife"

Hous Projects

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Marla Rutherford elicits visual desirability with her vibrant and bizarre imagery, turning everyday environments into wickedly polished circus-like atmospheres, in which she places her atypical heroines and intensely spirited children. Cake Knife conjures an intuitive juxtaposition of something sugary and sharp all at once, which is a binding theme to her images. Rutherford has described her portraiture pairings as “making sense” adding the psychological element that “fetishes are triggered in childhood and are then later brought out in adulthood.”

The objectification of the women in these artworks merely elevates them to a supernatural status, which further casts the attributes of fetishism and supplies them with inherent powers. In such images as Bird Call we find the lusty heroine clad in skintight black body suit, thigh high fire red boots and S&M gimp black mask and gloves. Hands to her head, she leans against an ordinary barn deck, creating psychological tension and visual drama. Her strength is paired with that of an impish toddler in The Arrival, who wears only a diaper and gives the viewer a malevolent side-glance, pondering the fate to be administered to the shiny red rubber ball at his feet. Rutherford has made these powerful associations between the women of the world of fetish and her portraits of these decisive children to strengthen overarching themes of “empowerment, escapism, imagination and play that comes with fetishism and is innate in children.”

Rutherford’s blend of commercial photography and fine art photography techniques adds a comedic and happy mood to her photographs. This unique approach has landed her work with Time Magazine, People Magazine and as one of the eleven selected photographers chosen for the USA Network “Characters Welcome” project, which included Mary Ellen Mark and David Eustace.

Marla Rutherford lives and works in Colorado and Los Angeles. She splits her focus on both fine art and commercial work.