Hardware was released on 1 January 2025 with Highlight, with a maximum supply of 544 that the artist corrected on the day of release.
The work looks at the props we use to trust an object, such as frames, labels, dates and signatures, and asks how much of that authority is just appearance.
Each image shows something like a framed work with all of its supporting matter, including a mount, an institutional-looking label and a handwritten mark. None of it is real. Butcher generated about 10,000 images with Flux and picked 544. The paperwork is part of the picture, and no institution issued it. Holders of the earlier work 1988, a 3D model shown in augmented reality, could exchange it for Hardware.
In 1968 Marcel Broodthaers opened a museum of his own invention, the Musée d'Art Moderne, Département des Aigles, built from shipping crates, postcards and labels. It had the authority of a museum and nothing else. Duchamp's Box in a Valise packed his life's work into reproductions in a case. Hardware continues that line. It makes the apparatus of authentication the artwork and leaves out the work being authenticated.
If the label is all you can see, what is it vouching for?
The earlier work, 1988
In the release thread, Butcher describes 1988 as a 3D model that could be projected into physical surroundings through augmented reality. Hardware moves attention to the apparently supporting materials around an object: its frame, labels and marks of authorship.1
The release and its correction
The thread announced that 1988 editions could be exchanged for Hardware on Ethereum mainnet. It first gave a maximum supply of 554, then explicitly corrected that number to 544 later the same day.
A token's record and the fictional paperwork pictured in the artwork provide different kinds of evidence.1
Generating and choosing
On 2 January, Butcher described refining prompts with Flux 1. 1 Pro Ultra through Krea, then producing batches through the Flux API. He reported choosing 544 images from approximately 10,000 outputs.
Selection is central: a system produces variations, while the artist decides which versions belong to the collection. The apparently handwritten marks and institutional-looking labels are part of the generated image, not certificates supplied by the institutions they might suggest.1
Evidence and appearance
A label, frame or date can suggest authority without establishing an object's history. Hardware makes that gap visible.
Development
Notes on the record
Sources and further reading
Artist statements describe intention. Reporting and interviews record different perspectives; exhibition announcements establish specific presentations. How sources are classified.
1. Artist / studio · Selected posts from the downloaded account archive
Hardware: release, correction and image-making
10 selected posts, through 2025-01-02. The launch thread corrects the maximum supply from 554 to 544 and describes the image-generation and selection process. Original wording and links are preserved; headings and notes are editorial. This is artist testimony, not independent verification.