Appropriation

Jade Butler

Graduating from West Wales School of the Arts in 2010 Jade Butler is an Irish artist specialising in contemporary still life painting. Jade has exhibited in Ireland and the UK and is currently based in Dublin. Jade works primarily in the medium of oil painting. Current work draws inspiration from Still Life painting throughout art history, particularly the Dutch and Flemish schools. Her work is a contemporary take on the traditional still life and its associated themes. Jade has recently completed a residency at the Cill Rialaig Project.

Jade has exhibited in annual exhibitions of the Royal Hibernian Academy, the Royal  Ulster Academy and the Royal Scottish Academy. Her works are held in private collections in Europe and the U S. And in the public collection of the Office of Public Works N.I.

“Taking inspiration from still life painting throughout art history, my work is a contemporary take on the traditional still life and its associated themes. Everything in this form of still life is symbolic, objects are metaphor – for death, life, wealth and so on. This forms the core of my work, the starting point. I am combining man made and organic objects and using the relationships between the objects to form a concept. I am interested in the relationship we have with material objects and with nature, and with the relationship between those two.

As human beings we seem to be obsessed with accumulating stuff, amassing wealth, material possessions, and collecting things that have no obvious use. The effect material objects have on us is what interests me, desire, nostalgia and what they represent to us. Many of these items last a long time, but they deteriorate and become old junk, cluttering up our homes or charity shops or landfills. They have a long physical lifespan, but their value depreciates. On the other hand a single object in nature, like a flower, can have a very brief lifespan, a few months, a few days, a season. But as a whole nature thrives continuously, adapting with the seasons and regenerating constantly. There is an unavoidable relationship between these two, often combative as one negatively impacts the other. I’m interested in combining these opposing forces and illustrating the tension between them. It is a reflection on human nature and our impact on the world we live in”