Valissa Butterworth
CV
Contact
Statement
StatementLocated in regional Victoria, Australia, I map how spaces hold and exchange energy using Colour, New materialism and Quantum science theories. Specifically Entanglement, the linking of particles that share the same fate regardless of time and distance, and Superposition, showing me everything exists as possibility and is connected to everything across time and space by a unifying field. I set about exploring this with materials to find new spaces to rest my mind in a world full of documented things. I want to see the unseen. Now I look at space from a Quantum perspective using materials that are both liquid and solid, occupying two states simultaneously, resin, liquid clay, wax, bread and paint, I capture unseen energy in the shift from unstable to solid. Potential. Bread embodies notions of inter-connectedness, echoed in quantum science entanglement theory and superposition where everything exists in multiple states until we observe it, our participation decides the outcomes. I use it as material space in motion, connected to everything. Through connections to early civilization, political and religious metaphors as the body of Christ, it becomes the space between what is and what could be, a powerful energetic force of belief.Stripping the bread from inside loaves reveals fascinating pockets of space existing close to the ‘skin’. Exposing these spaces using liquid clay leaves them free to re-entangle with fragments of my material and energetic practice, becoming something other. Their scale suggests a bodily connection, acting as an anchor in vast expanses of space, compelling you closer to investigate, like the gravitational pull of a planet.Creating with colour to realise unbound amorphous bloated resin forms, folding and consuming themselves, entangled with space in reference to Aldous Huxley’s ‘colour at large’ theory. I’m attempting to undo the filtered, sanitized version of colour we experience through the minds operating systems. In other connected works layers of thick resin contain random abstract smears of colour, floating, unhinged, like incomplete thoughts or scars from another unrealised outcome. Remnants, memories, possibilities. Embedding Light and shadow connects the work to place and lends to the unstable chaos, illuminating the unseeable nature of entanglement. Here multiple works are created from a single surface layer and tracked through time, creating a physical representation of entanglement theory, the shared fate of linked particles.Quantum also shows us the observer effect whereby we create our own reality. Recreating a single material experiment in multiple spaces with different people/groups of people I am testing this theory using thoughts, feelings, energy and perception. Each outcome is highly variable and unique. In becoming part of the experiment we engage our curiosity and stretch our capacity to experience new spaces/things, we’re able to imagine outcomes beyond our understanding of our current state.At the end of all of all of this I make vessels, images, projections and objects from space, to hold space, bought into reality (used loosely) by imagination and curiosity (space). I create beyond the architectural, highly structured, organised constraints and boundaries imposed by my younger self using Quantum theory, New materialism and colour theories.CV
Valissa Butterworth
b.1976, Australia
studio. Wangandary, Victoria. Australia 3678
Qualifications
Contemporary Art Academy development programs. London UK. 2023-25 MFA. R.M.I.T. Melbourne. Victoria AUSTRALIA. 2019-2021 BA. R.M.I.T. Melbourne. Victoria AUSTRALIA. 2009-2010 Diploma of Art – Ceramics. Holmesglen Institute. Victoria AUSTRALIA. 2006-2008
Solo Exhibitions
2021 ‘Sensuous Materiality’ Wangaratta Regional Art Gallery. Wangaratta. Victoria AUSTRALIA
Group Exhibitions
2026 Circum/stance. Edinburgh. Scotland UK 2025 Common ground collective. London UK 2024 Contemporary Art Academy, Online, London UK 2021 MA Graduate exhibition. RMIT Melbourne, Victoria AUSTRALIA 2018 Fringe festival. Abbotsford Convent. Melbourne, Victoria AUSTRALIA 2018 How much can a Koala Bear. Abbotsford Convent. Melbourne, Victoria AUSTRALIA 2017 Melbourne in Design, Victoria AUSTRALIA 2016 Denfair. Melbourne, Victoria AUSTRALIA 2015 Sydney In Design. Sydney, NSW AUSTRALIA 2015 London Design Fair, Australian Pavilion. London UK 2010 RMIT Graduate Exhibition, Carbon Black. Melbourne, Victoria AUSTRALIA 2009 Stirrings. Skepsi Gallery. Melbourne, Victoria AUSTRALIA 2008 Fresh – Craft Victoria. Finalist, Melbourne, Victoria AUSTRALIA
Collections
Bendigo Art Gallery. Donated by private collector. Bendigo, Victoria AUSTRALIA Holmesglen Institute Collection. Victoria AUSTRALIA
Private collections
Local, National and International collections. Ceramics, glass, objects.
Awards
2025 Shortlisted, VAA Art500 International 2025, UK 2022 Shortlisted, Percival Photographic Portrait Prize. Townsville, Queensland AUSTRALIA 2016 Finalist, VIVID Design Competition. Melbourne, Victoria AUSTRALIA 2015 Shortlisted, Launchpad Design Awards. Sydney, NSW AUSTRALIA 2015 Finalist, VIVID Design Competition. Melbourne, Victoria AUSTRALIA 2013 Finalist, Driven x Design Awards. Melbourne, Victoria AUSTRALIA 2008 Finalist, Fresh – Craft Victoria. Finalist, Melbourne, Victoria AUSTRALIA
Press/Publications
Lucy Johnston, Digital Handmade, Craftsmanship in the New Industrial Revolution. Thames and Hudson, London UK 2015 and 2017 update. p. 38-41. Natalie Bannister, The Creatives Valissa Butterworth, Queensland Homes Magazine, Autumn 2013, p. 30
