In AFNI the works Butler engages with the idea of choice and change, the truth that we create realities so we must have the power to change them. He activates what it means to be black and seek deconstruction while building the change that is sought. The works are characterized by the political mutability and malleability of the the subjects as they move through this change.

-

Since America's inception, Black people were to be excluded from fully inter grated in as "white". Other people of color who may not be able to integrate have the option to pass. To be Black is always to be "other" Unless you happen to be famous, wealthy and influential due to sports and entertainment. To make it through basketball is to be a true American

- Butler

Artist Statement

The medium of collage is a significant element of art history, whether the cubist collages of Picasso, Matisse's paper cuts, the assemblages of Robert Rauschenberg, or the photomontages of John Baldessari. But an understated role of collage is a vessel for Black American existence, representation, and history.

My work is rooted in this searching, discovering, and repurposing of the Black American existence, representation, and history. Beginning with my own family, I confront history through multiple forms of collage. Family archives are converted into cereal boxes. Major American magazines are updated and forced to unveil their past practices. Oral narratives are reborn and appropriated Black photographs of every era become murals for the present.