STATEMENT

After 25 years devoted to the patient and incremental development of a practice of reductive, self-referential process-based painting, Butcher's work changed dramatically in 2020. "Confronted by the devastating impact of human behaviour on the planet, my former studio practice seemed deeply problematic and indulgent. What was it that my work consisted of but taking precious resources and turning them into useless objects?"

A process of investigation into the parameters of his own practice ensued, an attempt at its systematic deconstruction. He pulled his previous works apart, both intellectually and physically, peeling the skins of paint from their supports and categorising them according to a basic taxonomy. In short, he subjected his entire practice to a sort of forensic examination. The resulting skins, fragments and traces of paint are presented sandwiched between sheets of glass like specimens. They provide a record or index of past artistic endeavours, a 'natural history' of his creative self.

Endgame is the modus operandi of all Butcher's current and future creative work. He has committed to use only those materials already available in the studio; using up, repurposing and recycling what he already has without consuming more. He will draw out his use of current resources for as long as possible, being as frugal as he can and when he has run out of materials he will simply stop making art.

"Looking back at my earlier work, it seems very much a product of its time; a time relatively free of the environmental and socio-political anxieties of today. Continuing with that approach seemed increasingly and reprehensibly irrelevant."