Butler
Sana Rose, Contributor
NATALIE BUTLER completed two diplomas in painting and sculpture from 1989 to 1996 and a post-graduate diploma in 1997 at the Edna Manley School of Visual Arts.
At the end of her sojourn at the school, which was punctuated by experimentation with a very broad range of traditional and alternative materials, Butler felt that too much production in painting and sculpture had resulted in overkill.
She felt that she was just "a proficient maker."
As she relates: "I grew away from the artificiality of the 'gallery object', as it seemed to be too far removed from the things I was really interested in; I needed more immediacy."
While she questioned her role and future as an artist, she decided that the immediacy that she needed could be acquired through working directly on site with the physical materials of that site.
She received encouragement from her tutors to pursue post-graduate studies and later gained entry to a two-year Master's course in site-specific sculpture at Wimbledon School of Art in London, England.
Butler met the prospect of studying in England with much excitement and anticipation.
She states "I had only briefly visited London so it was very much an adventure leaving Kingston for the unknown. Compared with living in Jamaica there was a sense of freedom that came with being 'anonymous' in a big city.
Taken to the extreme however, this sense of freedom was sometimes eclipsed by feeling totally invisible!"
While at Wimbledon, the cost of living in London on a student income became a frustrating reality but Butler was not without options.
She states that "Fortunately there was no shortage of badly paying jobs waiting to gobble-up the student labour force. Low wages meant having to work long and unsociable hours in order to make anything - so in the end you have less time to spend anyway! Working in situations with students from all over the globe was fantastic. My first year I worked as a chef in a pasta restaurant with people from Spain, Africa, France, Croatia and Italy. The second year I was a receptionist at a night-club in central London."
The course at Wimbledon also enabled Butler to interact with people from other countries such as Thailand, Albania, Ireland, Japan and Scotland.
The variety found in the students' backgrounds and approaches to art was also reflected in the age range, which was from 25-70 years.
The workload involved weekly slide presentations and discussions with past students, practising artists and members of staff and each student had to present their work to fellow colleagues.
Since the course was site-specific sculpture, the students got the opportunity to use public spaces for which written and visual proposals had to be submitted.
Resourcefulness and willingness
Butler's resourcefulness and willingness to do what was necessary to get the most out of her studies enabled her to seize a number of opportunities.
She explained "I took advantage of any opportunity that came my way and exhibited in at least six shows in London as well as in Amsterdam, Holland. I was selected from my year to make a large outdoor work in Hoorn (Holland) and took a job teaching the summer sculpture course at Wimbledon. I was also able to investigate the possibilities of using both video and the computer as part of my working process, although this was very much self-directed. Documentation was a very important aspect of the course and has subsequently become an integral part of my work."
Butler's approach to her art impacted on the way she dealt with her studies in England.
She is adamant that "...the idea that the world can be your canvas rather than a piece of purchased fabric excites me. We live in a time of so much excess and waste, too much information saying nothing; a world of illusion and escapism, of virtual reality. For me the future of art lies in realising its power as a means of communication grounded in reality - the potential of collaborative projects with like-minded individuals (not just artists), to realise work in the 'public domain' that deals with important social, political and environmental issues."
The "international affair" as she refers to her experience and the hands-on atmosphere of working with others was met head-on by Butler who welcomed the challenge to realise in practical terms, her growing artistic philosophy.
Immediately after completing her studies, she was employed to run a summer at course for disadvantaged children in South London.
Following her return to Jamaica, she was commissioned to do a public mural in Tropical Plaza and worked with a department of the National Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA), to set up workshops and produce a collaborative work with Denham Town and Ardenne High School students.
In the studio, Butler approaches her work mainly from an interactive angle. One of her pieces for last year's Annual National Exhibition at the National Gallery of Jamaica titled, Out of Many, involved interviewing people on the streets outside of the National Gallery about the various things with which they associate the colours of the national flag.
The result was a 15-foot flag installed on the front of the gallery along with 100 mini flags mounted inside the gallery.
Her recent solo exhibition, Earthbound Stargazer dealt with a one-day observational experience at Grosvenor Galleries, which resulted in mounted text that communicated/interacted with the viewer on a mental/psychological level.
Before Butler ventured into post-graduate studies, she exhibited widely and participated in various design projects and workshops which in addition to her years at Edna Manley College, assisted her in establishing an idea of what she wanted her artistic life to be.
In the end, the post-graduate experience enriched her artistic practise through exposure to art, artists, environments and people in general which whet her appetite for interaction.
She has returned to Jamaica with verve, insight and a stronger sense of purpose.
She declares "Coming back to Jamaica with new knowledge and attitude, I was relieved to be on familiar ground.
"Although there are not so many organised opportunities for artists there is still much potential for artists to set up their own projects if they take the initiative. I think that the experience gained doing the Masters degree gave me the confidence to realise this. In retrospect, I realise that the experience of living in an unfamiliar environment is just as important as the course that you study - the two go hand-in-hand. The opportunity to travel, to be a stranger and figure out where and how you fit in is a difficult but rewarding experience.
"When you return to what is familiar you do so from a new perspective."
In addition to working on projects and developing her own work, Butler now teaches at the Edna Manley School of Visual Arts in the painting and sculpture departments.
