A deeper perspective of the bush on the Artist Residency

Lion Sands Ivory Lodge is excited to have artist Amy Rusch in residence from mid-October to mid-November. Amy originates from Cape Town, and as an interdisciplinary artist explores an expression of mark-making, using stitched thread into layers of found plastic bags. The layers of plastic, connected by the motion and soundscape produced by the machine, communicate aural and material aspects of our modern culture. The threads are an attempt to link and comprehend millions of years of layered stratigraphic time.

Her current body of work is informed by ocean crossings, archaeological excavations and microscopic studies of the living world. The works can be seen as tracings, translations or mappings of sensory lived - body experiences, becoming multisensory coalescences of sound, vibration, line and colour.

“Cutting, stitching, heating, pulling, binding, gathering, layering – these practices demand their own rhythm by turns slow and meticulous then quick, fast interventions. The motions enacted in making provides a retrospective link to the embodied experiences, transmuted in the process. The machine stitching into plastic bags is not about replicating an experience, an object, or anything formally understood. The process is about sitting with the remnants of man-made materials; human time in contrast to the elemental and deep time,” says Amy.

Curator Amy Ellenbogen is excited about this opportunity and says “Amy Rusch has an incredible understanding and knowledge of the wilderness. She has spent a lot of time in the open ocean, and it makes sense for her to spend time in the open Lowveld. Amy is inspired by nature, from the pattern on the shell of a beetle to a bird’s eye view of the landscape. The best thing about Amy is her ability to work with materials we would otherwise discard and find ugly. She takes plastic and manipulates it through heat, through weaving, and sewing, and creates something that is a beautiful keepsake. This is a juxtaposition of something that is so anti-nature. The gift of a month on this residency programme means Amy can really interpret the space and give us a different viewpoint, a deeper perspective of the bush.”

Amy’s impressions of her stay: “It’s been an extraordinary time here at Lion Sands, working from a space that’s so very close to wildness, the living environment. I’ve spent days working in silence with just gentle heat compressions of the plastic and it’s been incredible to have that aural shift – to be able to absorb the soundscape of this Lowveld. It’s opened thought channels and I hope it is bringing me closer to being attentive to the details as well as the whole.”

Amy has a full-time studio practice alongside ongoing archaeological projects in the Northern Cape and the southern Cape coast. She has a varied background in the arts having studied Motion Picture Production Design at City Varsity, and has a skill set that includes sculpting, moulding, casting, prosthetic production, and special effects make-up. These skills have equipped her to work in film, television and theatre as well as with industrial designers, architects, archaeologists, and boat builders.

She was part of the team who made replica artefacts from archaeological sites, that were exhibited in the ‘Origins of Early Sapiens Behaviour Exhibition’ at Spier, Iziko South African Museum and at the Wits Origins Centre in Johannesburg.

Amy lectured in the Art Department at City Varsity and taught extra-mural art at Peter Clarke Art Centre. Amy was represented by SMITH Gallery and exhibited in multiple group shows with them. Her work has been shown at the Pretoria Art Museum, Iziko South African National Gallery, and at Zeitz MOCAA.

Our Cape Town readers can view Amy’s latest exhibition ‘Seeing with a Listening Ear’ at SMAC gallery in Stellenbosch, up until the 11th of December 2022.