William Buttons work aims to confront our innate desire to predict and control chaotic systems that surround us in nature, acknowledging that we must accept the uncertainty of both our past and our future histories. We realise that in order to survive into the future we must adapt, inventing systems and strategies in order to do so with the greatest efficiency and the least energy expended. He is intrigued by our pursuit of control and understanding, primarily as a form of self preservation, which has now begun to morph due to our success. Searching to find meaning no longer in existence but within the seemingly irrational and abstract swathes of objects and images all around us.

The ability art objects have to escape the need for explicit functionality opens up an oblique unstable territory, allowing the viewer to second guess the purpose of an object or image. This in-between space is where Button aims to situate those who view his objects. Between knowing and not knowing, recognition and speculation, leaving us in free fall as our minds race to contextualise that which we see before us.

Button lives and works between London and North Yorkshire. Having completed his education at Central St Martins in 2021, he has shown work across london in group shows, contributed to publications, most recently Camper 2 (2023), and assited artists such as Charles Hadcock and Rafael Melendez across Europe and the Uk with the production and transportation of artworks.