Work (2024) is a four-part silver sculpture made with Asprey Studio. A sequence of hands moves from a detailed human form toward a pixelated cursor, giving weight to a gesture usually encountered on a screen.
From hand to cursor
The sequence began as a digital work. Asprey’s account describes the sculpture as a way of making changes in labor visible: the body’s effort gives way to a small action at an interface. This interpretation comes from the work’s production partner.
Sources: Asprey Studio × Jack Butcher
Making and marking
Asprey Studio made the sculpture in silver. Its documentation identifies assay marks on the first hand. Silk’s project record credits Martin Klipp of Beyond Art Creative as co-producer of the 2024 sculpture.
The marks bring a material system of verification into a work concerned with digital abstraction. They establish a different kind of evidence from the cursor’s visual suggestion of action.
Sources: Asprey Studio × Jack Butcher; Jack Butcher — Work, Luck, Play
What the viewer encounters
The sculpture does not require its owner to burn, combine or vote. The sequence itself establishes the comparison. Moving it from an image into silver makes the relation between physical effort and apparently effortless action tangible.
Work later appeared with Luck and Play in Silk’s Art Basel Hong Kong presentation. The participatory rules of that larger presentation should be distinguished from the four-part sculpture.
Sources: Jack Butcher — Work, Luck, Play
Development
Images
Selected images from the artist’s project archive. Captions describe the images; they do not assign unverified photography credits.
Sources and further reading
Artist statements describe intention. Reporting and interviews record different perspectives; exhibition announcements establish specific presentations. How sources are classified.
Gallery / platform · Production-partner documentation
Asprey Studio × Jack Butcher
Documents the silver Work sculpture and its assay marks. Asprey is the fabricator and a project partner, not an independent critic.
Exhibition record · Exhibitor project record
Jack Butcher — Work, Luck, Play
Documents the Hong Kong presentation, 25–29 March 2026, and production credits. Silk describes its own involvement in production, collecting and the surrounding editorial programme.