Phrases toward rephrase, 2014

Kyle Butler - Buffalo, USA

Performance Art

Phrases toward rephrase is a performative series of material interactions that derives theatre from construction and deconstruction. The performance occurs in episodes, each with a particular arrangement of constructed forms concealing objects, tools and raw materials extracted and manipulated in choreographed sequence. The forms are cut into, drilled through, broken open and new structures and actions are yielded from their dismantling. Embracing the potential for failure and alternating between set-up and tear down, the piece continues throughout the night until the scene is littered with the debris and byproducts of the original forms.

Influenced by the visual and organizational systems of architecture and urban planning, Kyle Butler’s work explores the symbiotic issues of destruction and regeneration. With a nod to iconic land artist Robert Smithson’s concept of “ruins in reverse,” the aesthetic of crumbling, destroyed, drilled-into, debris-filled objects and installations has become an essential strain of contemporary art. Butler operates within this purview, responding to the environment and architecture around him through his paintings, sculptures, installations, videos and performances.

Kyle Butler is an artist from Michigan currently living in Buffalo, New York. He received his B.F.A. with a focus in painting from Central Michigan University in 2008 and his M.A. in Visual Studies from the University at Buffalo in 2010. He has been included in exhibitions in at the Albright Knox Art Gallery, The Burchfield Penney Art Center and Hallwalls (Buffalo, N.Y.), at Exhibit A (Corning, N.Y.) and at Lost Coast Culture Machine (Fort Bragg, C.A.) among others. He is represented by Nina Freudenheim Gallery in Buffalo.

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Nathan Phillips Square

100 Queen Street West (situated in the South East corner of Nathan Phillips Square)

This project is outdoors.