Amy Rusch (b. 1990) is a Cape Town-based multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans diverse mediums. Her work explores a vibrational expression of mark-making through stitched threads on layers of found plastic bags. The layering of plastic, shaped by the motion and soundscape of the stitching process, reflects both the aural and material aspects of contemporary culture. The threads serve as an attempt to connect and comprehend the vastness of stratigraphic time, stretching across millions of years.
Rusch’s current body of work is informed by ocean crossings, archaeological excavations, and microscopic studies of the living world. Her practice acts as tracings, translations, or mappings of sensory, lived experiences, forming multisensory fusions of sound, vibration, line, and color.As she describes:
“Cutting, stitching, heating, pulling, binding, gathering, layering— these practices demand their own rhythm, alternating between slow, meticulous processes and quick, intuitive interventions. The motions enacted in making provide a retrospective link to embodied experiences, transmuted in the process. The machine stitching into plastic is not about replicating an experience or object, but about sitting with the remnants of man-made materials—human time contrasted with elemental and deep time.”