Ken Butler: Hybrid Visions

Ken Butler -born and raised in Portland, Oregon - is a highly regarded mixed media artist, instrument builder, composer and musician whose hybrid musical instruments, installations, and performances explore the interaction and transformation of common objects, sounds, and silence. Butler has commented: "The initial motivation for making my hybrids had very little to do with the idea of expanding the range of musical instruments. It was much more about a sculptural investigation and, to this day, remains more about the visual and poetic character of the instruments. There is something about using whatever is at hand, … and assembling them in references to head-neck-body shapes that resonates with me." Since the late 1980s when he moved to New York, Butler has performed at world­wide sites as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam , as well as PBS and NBC's Tonight Show with Jay Leno.