Amy Rusch

Amy Rusch (b. 1990, Cape Town, South Africa) is a multidisciplinary artist whose work examines material culture, time, and embodied experience through a process-intensive engagement with found plastics and machine stitching. Her practice is rooted in a deep sensitivity to sound, rhythm, and the physical act of making—transforming discarded materials into layered, meditative compositions that trace the tension between human time and geological deep time.

Working primarily with stitched layers of found plastic bags, Rusch creates surfaces that are both visual and tactile, capturing the vibrational residue of motion, labour, and memory. The hum and rhythm of the sewing machine become integral to the work, embedding aural and sensory dimensions into the material. Her practice is informed by archaeological fieldwork, oceanic crossings, and microscopic studies of the living world—each work a kind of mapping or translation of experience across scale and time.

Rusch has exhibited in major institutions including the Norval Foundation (as a finalist in the Norval Sovereign African Art Prize), the Pretoria Art Museum, Iziko South African National Gallery, and Zeitz MOCAA. She was part of the team that produced museum-quality replicas of artefacts from key archaeological sites such as Blombos Cave, Klipdrift Shelter, and Klasies River Mouth, which have been exhibited at Iziko South African Museum, the Wits Origins Centre in Johannesburg, and the University of Bergen in Norway.

Her recent collaborations with Suburbia Contemporary include presentations at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair (2024, 2025), FNB Art Joburg (2023, 2024), RMB Latitudes (2024), and the group exhibition Ifestile (2024) in Bo-Kaap, Cape Town. Rusch maintains a full-time studio practice while continuing her involvement in archaeological and film projects across the Northern Cape, Kalahari, and Southern Cape coast.