Associate Professor Sally Butler
Associate Professor

Sally Butler

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+61 7 336 53037

Background

Sally Butler is a Reader in Art History.

Sally Butler took up the position as lecturer in Art History at the University of Queensland in 2004 after a period as Art History lecturer at the Australian National Univeristy in Canberra. Visual arts industry experience includes working for the Queensland Art Gallery and a number of freelance curating projects, and several years as Associate Editor of Australian Art Collector magazine and one of the edtiors for the Australia and New Zealand Journal of Art. Sally regularly writes for Australian visual arts magazines, maintaining a particular interest in contemporary Australian art, Australian indigenous art and new media art.

Research

Her research interests include cross-cultural critical theory, Australian Indigenous art, Australian contemporary art, photography and new media art. Current research includes: Indigenous art from Far North Queensland, Virtual Reality theory and photography, contemporary Queensland photography, and art and cultural tourism.

Availability

Associate Professor Sally Butler is:
Available for supervision
Media expert

Fields of research

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, society and community Art history, theory and criticism Creative Arts and Writing Environmental politics Fine arts Human Society Language, Communication and Culture Ngā tāngata, te porihanga me ngā hapori o te Māori (Māori peoples, society and community) Photography, video and lens-based practice Political science Studies of Asian society Visual arts

Qualifications

  • Bachelor of Arts, The University of Queensland
  • Bachelor (Honours) of Arts, The University of Queensland
  • Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland

Research interests

  • Interdisciplinary Approaches to Australia Pacific Indigenous Art

    In what ways does the study of Australia Pacific Indigenous art contribute to a broad scope of intellectual activity? How does the holistic nature of what drives Australia Pacific indigenous arts help advance academic pursuit of interdisciplinarity and embedding Indigenous knowledges into academic curricula?

  • Australia Pacific Indigenous Art and Cultural Tourism

    What are the capacities, potential and challenges for Australia's network of Indigenous art centres to participate in the cultural tourism industry? What kind of tourism psychology is involved in Indigenous art tourism itineraries? Can Indigenous art tourism contribute to decolonisation in Australia and the Pacific?

  • Australian Art

    What are the narratives of Australian art today, and how can we look differently at Australian art from the past? Are national narratives beyond their use in a global world?

Search Professor Sally Butler’s works on UQ eSpace

76 works between 1999 and 2022
All (76) Journal Article (33) Book Chapter (16) Conference Publication (3) Book (3) Other Outputs (21)

1 - 20 of 76 works

Featured

2018

Journal Article

Book review: Rattling art history: the discipline's uncertain conditions: "Rattling spears: a history of Indigenous Australian Art by Ian McLean, London: Reaktion, 2016"

Butler, Sally (2018). Book review: Rattling art history: the discipline's uncertain conditions: "Rattling spears: a history of Indigenous Australian Art by Ian McLean, London: Reaktion, 2016". Art History, 41 (4), 761-764. doi: 10.1111/1467-8365.12392

Book review: Rattling art history: the discipline's uncertain conditions: "Rattling spears: a history of Indigenous Australian Art by Ian McLean, London: Reaktion, 2016"

Featured

2018

Book Chapter

Indigeneity

Butler, Sally (2018). Indigeneity. Visual Global Politics. (pp. 189-195) edited by Roland Bleiker. New York, NY United States: Routledge.

Indigeneity

Featured

2017

Journal Article

Are dead artists' paintings more lively? - Agency in description of artworks before and after an artist's death

Sullivan, Karen and Butler, Sally (2017). Are dead artists' paintings more lively? - Agency in description of artworks before and after an artist's death. Word, 63 (3), 198-206. doi: 10.1080/00437956.2017.1347312

Are dead artists' paintings more lively? - Agency in description of artworks before and after an artist's death

Featured

2017

Book Chapter

Australian indigenous art and literature

Butler, Sally (2017). Australian indigenous art and literature. Worldmaking: literature, language, culture. (pp. 107-116) edited by Tom Clark, Emily Finlay and Phillipa Kelly. Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/fillm.5.09but

Australian indigenous art and literature

Featured

2017

Book Chapter

Embodied witnessing: Indigenous performance art as political dissent

Butler, Sally and Bleiker, Roland (2017). Embodied witnessing: Indigenous performance art as political dissent. Art as political witness. (pp. 99-115) edited by Kia Lindroos and Frank Moller. Berlin, Germany: Barbara Budrich Publishers.

Embodied witnessing: Indigenous performance art as political dissent

Featured

2017

Book Chapter

'Temporary belonging': Indigenous cultural tourism and community art centres

Butler, Sally (2017). 'Temporary belonging': Indigenous cultural tourism and community art centres. Performing cultural tourism: communities, tourists and creative practices. (pp. 13-28) edited by Susan Carson and Mark Pennings. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315174464

'Temporary belonging': Indigenous cultural tourism and community art centres

Featured

2016

Journal Article

Here’s looking at: Cindy Sherman ‘Head Shots’

Butler, Sally (2016, 05 24). Here’s looking at: Cindy Sherman ‘Head Shots’

Here’s looking at: Cindy Sherman ‘Head Shots’

Featured

2016

Journal Article

Radical dreaming: Indigenous art and cultural diplomacy

Butler, Sally and Bleiker, Roland (2016). Radical dreaming: Indigenous art and cultural diplomacy. International Political Sociology, 10 (1), 56-74. doi: 10.1093/ips/olv004

Radical dreaming: Indigenous art and cultural diplomacy

Featured

2015

Conference Publication

Weaving worldviews and waste: GhostNets art personalizing environmental ethics

Butler, Sally (2015). Weaving worldviews and waste: GhostNets art personalizing environmental ethics. Unmaking Waste 2015, University of South Australia, Adelaide, 22-24 May 2015. Architecture and Design University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia: Zero Waste SA Research Centre for Sustainable Design and Behaviour.

Weaving worldviews and waste: GhostNets art personalizing environmental ethics

Featured

2014

Journal Article

'My Country' but 'Not My Style'

Butler, Sally (2014). 'My Country' but 'Not My Style'. Eyeline: Contemporary Visual Arts, 81, 36-41.

'My Country' but 'Not My Style'

Featured

2013

Journal Article

J. THOMAS RIMER(ed)Since Meiji: Perspectives on the Japanese Visual Arts, 1868–2000,

Butler, Sally (2013). J. THOMAS RIMER(ed)Since Meiji: Perspectives on the Japanese Visual Arts, 1868–2000,. Asian Studies Review, 37 (1), 103-105. doi: 10.1080/10357823.2013.767164

J. THOMAS RIMER(ed)Since Meiji: Perspectives on the Japanese Visual Arts, 1868–2000,

Featured

2012

Other Outputs

The "presence" of Queensland Indigenous art

Butler, Sally (2012). The "presence" of Queensland Indigenous art. Crossing cultures: the Owen and Wagner collection of contemporary aboriginal Australian art at the Hood Museum of Art. (pp. 82-91) edited by Stephen Gilchrist. Hanover, New Hampshire, USA: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College.

The "presence" of Queensland Indigenous art

Featured

2010

Book

Before time today: Reinventing tradition in Aurukun Aboriginal art

Sally Butler ed. (2010). Before time today: Reinventing tradition in Aurukun Aboriginal art. St Lucia, QLD, Australia: University of Queensland Press.

Before time today: Reinventing tradition in Aurukun Aboriginal art

Featured

2009

Book Chapter

Translating the spectacle: John Mawurndjul's intercultural aesthetic

Butler, Sally (2009). Translating the spectacle: John Mawurndjul's intercultural aesthetic. Between indigenous Australia and Europe : John Mawurndjul : Art histories in context. (pp. 161-174) edited by Claus Volkenandt and Christian Kaufmann. Canberra ACT: Aboriginal Studies Press.

Translating the spectacle: John Mawurndjul's intercultural aesthetic

Featured

2007

Book

Our way: Contemporary Aboriginal art from Lockhart River

Butler, Sally (2007). Our way: Contemporary Aboriginal art from Lockhart River. St. Lucia, QLD, Australia: University of Queensland Press.

Our way: Contemporary Aboriginal art from Lockhart River

Featured

2003

Journal Article

Multiple views: Pluralism as curatorial perspective

Butler, S. (2003). Multiple views: Pluralism as curatorial perspective. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art, 4 (1), 11-28. doi: 10.1080/14434318.2003.11432722

Multiple views: Pluralism as curatorial perspective

Featured

2002

Other Outputs

Emily Kngwarreye and the enigmatic object of discourse

Butler, Sally (2002). Emily Kngwarreye and the enigmatic object of discourse. PhD Thesis, School of English, Media Studies and Art History, The University of Queensland. doi: 10.14264/106210

Emily Kngwarreye and the enigmatic object of discourse

2022

Journal Article

The Karrabing Film Collective's decolonising signs

Butler, Sally (2022). The Karrabing Film Collective's decolonising signs. Eye Filmmuseum.

The Karrabing Film Collective's decolonising signs

2022

Other Outputs

Shielding the spirit - Jennifer Herd (MBarbarum) and Joanne Currie (Gungurri)

Butler, Sally (2022). Shielding the spirit - Jennifer Herd (MBarbarum) and Joanne Currie (Gungurri). Veiled Histories, Works by leading First Nations artists Jennifer Herd (MBarbarum) and Joanne Currie (Gungurri). (pp. 22-29) edited by Caloundra Regional Gallery. Caloundra, QLD, Australia: Caloundra Regional Gallery.

Shielding the spirit - Jennifer Herd (MBarbarum) and Joanne Currie (Gungurri)

2019

Journal Article

Inalienable signs and invited guests: Australian Indigenous art and cultural tourism

Butler, Sally (2019). Inalienable signs and invited guests: Australian Indigenous art and cultural tourism. Arts, 8 (161) 4, 161. doi: 10.3390/arts8040161

Inalienable signs and invited guests: Australian Indigenous art and cultural tourism

Past funding

  • 2014 - 2015
    Metaphor in image and word: correspondences in the conceptual metaphors underlying artworks and their linguistic descriptions.
    UQ Collaboration and Industry Engagement Fund - Seed Research Grant
    Open grant
  • 2013 - 2014
    Art, Knowledge and Indigeneity in the Sandstone University
    Copyright Agency Cultural Fund
    Open grant
  • 2010 - 2012
    Aboriginal Art & Environmentalism in Aurukun
    UQ Early Career Researcher
    Open grant

Availability

Associate Professor Sally Butler is:
Available for supervision

Before you email them, read our advice on how to contact a supervisor.

Available projects

  • Australian Indigenous Art and Politics 1975-1985

    This project aims to understand how Australian Indigenous art encapsulated and helped to communicate political ideas about Indigenous land rights, social justice and equality in a period that also saw the emergence of the modern Australian Indigenous art movement.

  • Australian Art Centres and Cultural Tourism

    This project evaluates the capacities, potential and challenges for Australia's network of Indigenous Art Centres contributing in cultural tourism initiatives.

    Contributions sought for:

    Sally Butler (editor) 'Australian Indigenous Art and Cultural Tourism', Arts, Special Issue, Volume 9, 2019.

Supervision history

Current supervision

Completed supervision

Enquiries

Contact Associate Professor Sally Butler directly for media enquiries about:

  • Aboriginal art
  • Art - Aboriginal
  • Australian art
  • Critical theory - cross cultural
  • Cross-cultural critical theory
  • Indigenous art
  • Photography
  • Photography - contemporary

Need help?

For help with finding experts, story ideas and media enquiries, contact our Media team:

communications@uq.edu.au