Chick Butcher

Born: Southern Highlands, NSW

Lives and Works: Kiama, NSW

Artist Statement

The Gravity of Silence, 2025

Morbid curiosity, our deep, often uneasy interest in death, emerges from a fundamental desire to understand what lies beyond our final breath. Death forces a rupture between body and spirit, presence and absence, and in that space of unknowing, we seek meaning. What remains when we pass is not just the body in its quiet decay, but the traces of life that ripple outward: memories, objects, imprints in the lives of others. The physical form softens and returns to the earth, but questions about spirit, its existence, and its destination linger, suspended in uncertainty. This curiosity doesn't only flirt with fear, it acknowledges the profound mystery that sits at the core of being alive.

Grief, then, is our human method of holding onto what we cannot fully grasp. It is the process of reconciling the sudden absence of the body with the persistent presence of memory. We sort through remnants, photographs, clothing, and a familiar scent, trying to make sense of what endures and what slips away. Some find solace in ritual, others in reflection, but all of us, in some way, are translating the invisible weight of loss into something that can be carried. Grief blurs boundaries between past and present, life and afterlife, forcing us to confront not only the decay of the body, but the resilience and fragility of the spirit.

About the Artist

With a distinct vision, Kiama-based Chick Butcher’s work focuses on the inherent reflection and introspection found within specific objects, from large installations to intimate pieces. His practice is heavily rooted in its materiality across a number of mediums including glass and steel.

 Chick’s work is held in Australian and international collections including the National Gallery of Australia; the Art Gallery of Western Australia; the Australian Catholic University; the Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui, New Zealand; Palm Springs Art Museum and the Ebeltoft Museum, Denmark. Chick is a graduate of the Australian National University, School of Art & Design, Canberra; Sydney College of the Arts (Visual Arts, Hons) and the internationally renowned Sturt School for Wood, Mittagong. Chick was born in the Southern Highlands and resides and practices in Kiama on the South Coast of NSW.