Butter Fingers!

This diptych assembles two found elements—an artist’s mannequin hand and a yellow paint mark on brick—into a visual pun on “butterfingers.” Neither image contains actual butter; the narrative exists only through their pairing and the title’s suggestion. The work operates in the tradition of Dadaist readymades, where photographic juxtaposition transforms unrelated objects into constructed meaning.

The mannequin hand, typically used for drawing reference, becomes an actor in an imagined scene. The paint mark below—likely utilitarian signage or accidental residue—reads as dropped butter only when contextualized by the hand above. The work examines how photography assembles fiction from reality, and how titles direct interpretation of ambiguous imagery.

Essay written: November 2025