I believe metaphysical and personal rituals can acknowledge grief and cultivate hope by providing refuge in the body. My project, Signal, explores how spiritual practices and rituals offer sanctuary and resistance for LGBTQ+ people and women facing systemic oppression. Through photography, I delve into the practices of LGBTQ+ and women psychics, witches, seers, and believers as acts of belonging. Personal rituals rupture unjust hegemonic systems, and I use photography to reveal these practices' liberating and connective power.
In 2023, as I sifted through my late grandmother’s belongings, I discovered quiet traces of mysticism: the wishbones, crystals tucked away in the bedroom, a single, gray, dusty four-leaf clover resting on the windowsill. The memory of her morning ritual echoed back to me, her voice carrying through the porch door, “Good morning, Mother Nature!” This illuminated my intergenerational search for belonging and safety through practice and belief. Now that both of my grandparents have died, my quest for belonging carries their legacy into a community of metaphysical LGBTQ+ and women practitioners.
Believers are everywhere: our teachers, our baristas, our health care specialists–and in my case, my family, chosen and by blood. I’ve learned that practitioners use their rituals multidimensionally–to stay sober, honor gender expression, commune with the dead, as paid entertainers, sustain ancestral legacy, and deliver messages from spirits. I’ve photographed over thirty practitioners across the US and Mexico in the last two years. These diverse practices coalesce to heal wounds often inflicted by anti-feminist and anti-LGBTQ+ ideologies that undermine people’s bodily rights and personal safety.
My material process is integral to this work. After working on-location, I return to the darkroom to print 16” x 20” silver gelatin contact prints, honoring one of photography's earliest tactile forms.
Website
www.rielsturchio.com
Collective or Agency
n/a
