I think this work is about work. So it’s a work about artwork. And a fundamental tension, because fine art emerges only in contexts of leisure—the absence of work.
I see my role as an artist now as that of a laborer. As we continue to survive this climate-COVID-cancer Trifecta, my work returns me to a sort of monastic practice—removing dust.
It’s a good thing. This kind of work can fulfill the need for external validation that is missing in a lack of contextual validation that can occur, say, in situations of violent change—where our everyday becomes unrecognizable, the familiar turns foreign.
I am at the same time skipping rocks on the lake where I am from, thinking.
Why do children collect small stones, sticks, rocks—objects of beauty—for their friends and caregivers if not to reconnect us to our ground? To show that, ultimately, these things belong to no one. And in that, they belong to everyone.
My most recent works are essays regarding how to emerge from existentialism.
For inquiries regarding available works, commissions, or exhibitions, please contact sarahbutlerstudio@gmail.com.