Rachel Rusk

Resonance

04–15–2025

This trio of entities, red reishi mycelium and their fruiting body counterparts, were stewarded in their growth process by Rusk in a level 1 lab environment.
In their months of development, Rusk reflected on their daily changes, responses to their environment and atmosphere, and the beauty of their evolution.

Each entity rests on a bed of sand, nestled within a CNC machined bed of walnut. The sand softens and protects, while the drawn ripples in its surface reflect the tooled steps of the CNC machine and the innate impact living beings have on one another.

Each hardwood bed is made to conform to the shape of its loving mycelium partner.
These relationships explore the beauty in abstraction of nature, while highlighting the cyclical journey of life, as felled wood decomposes it decays and new life is born through fungal filaments.

One life calls to another, and transformation is honored in this infinite moment. In this we recognize the deep entanglement of human impact on ecosystems and the simulated methods we have developed to perpetuate existence.

Red Reishi Mycelium + Fruiting Bodies
Sand
Machined Black Walnut

Baltimore, MD

The Four Mothers

09–12–2024

The Four Mothers reflect on seasonal changes, the farmers' reliance on steady weather patterns, and a picture of growth left uncompleted by the disappearance of these designated seasons, while growth struggles to carry on. Cultivated on Agar plates in collaboration with RFP expressing E. coli cells, E. coli cells with supppressed lacZ gene. Cells were applied to agar using a CNC bioprinter.

Genetically modified E. Coli cells
Agar

Baltimore, MD

Discarded

03–24–2025

Dried Red Reishi Mycelium and her fruiting bodies rest on rosemary dyed cotton. The hyphal filaments of the mycelium are selectively dyed with rust.

This work is born out of lives and material that was unwanted, undervalued and discarded.

Rusk salvaged an entire rosemary bush from a local yard excavation, and used its leaves to dye the cotton you see before you. Rusk repurposed a thermoformed 3d model as a mold to cast and cultivate discarded substrate inoculated with red reishi spawn. Once the reishi had grown, Rusk dried and dyed the vegetative body with rust derived from discarded machinist parts.

“Discarded” honors the leftovers, the “weeds”, and the living that are lost to nothing less than their inconvenient existence. “Discarded” highlights the values that this practice upholds and its reflection in the evolution of American industry.

Red Reishi Mycelium + Fruiting Bodies
Rust Dye
Rosemary Dyed Cotton

Baltimore, MD

Movement in a Moment

12–21–2016

Ombre dyed Silk habotai is painted with an acrylic medium using a CNC machine. The line work drawn by the machine was originally drawn from points tracked in space following the artist’s dance movements. This was done using the computer program Grasshopper in conjunction with a video capturing device, xbox kinect sensor. The data points were translated into linework through Grasshopper and then digitally mapped to the piece of cloth. Once the design was painted on the cloth, the plane was used in a performance piece in which the artist performed the same dance that is painted on the cloth.

Ombre dyed silk
Acylic Medium
Hacked CNC router

Baltimore, MD

Philosophical Aggregate

04–07–2024

This piece carries practices that have been present for the last 6000 years, it also carries practices that have been developed in the last century. The disciplines of natural dye, embroidery and sashiko are time consuming, thoughtful, and deliberate. To speak in this language is to speak thoughtfully and with conviction. In contrast, laser etching is precise, accurate, and immediate. Laser etched in the outer wings of this design, is pattern adapted from Rene Descartes speculating the contents of the universe. These voronoi diagrams were once speculation on the universe, the unknown, and looking to the future. Now they have applications in cartography, biology, computer science, statistics, archaeology, and architecture. The depicted images marry alchemical drawings from the 17th century with contemporary illustrations, centering on the themes of rebirth, technology, ecology, and infinity. This piece finds balance in the old adage “Festina lente”, encouraging us to make haste slowly and look to the past as move towards the future.

indigo dyed cotton
marigold, cochineal, sulphur cosmo dyed cotton
laser etched cotton
cotton thread black walnut
dried marigolds

Text laser etched in Walnut frame, adapted by Rusk from
William Blake; “ Everything has its own vortex, and when once a traveler through Eternity has passed that vortext she percieves it to roll backward and behind, Her path, into a globe itself infolding like a sun, or like a moon, or like a moon of starry majesty. As the eye of the Primordial She views both east and west encompassing its vortex. Thus is the earth one infinite plane and not as apparent to the weak traveler confined beneath the moony shade.”

Ubud, Bali

Indigo Woman

02–18–2023

12 layers of wax and more than 20 dips in indigo, this piece reflects a love of labor and a love of natural indigo.

This work utilizes the ancient resist technique batik, where the maker resists dye in areas of cloth by progressively laying down wax before dipping the fabric into a dye vat or pot. This process is repeated until the desired imagery is achieved, the fabric is then boiled to remove any remnant of the wax.

“Indigo Woman” was dyed in Ubud, Bali with Asam indigo, harvested and processed on site at Threads of Life studio. Through the use of multiple tamarind indigo vats, this work was conceived as an ode to Rusk’s ongoing partnership with indican producing plants, farming, fermenting and finally producing pigment to build “living vats” .

It highlights the intimacy of this process, the belief that indigo is a mother, and born from her is a strength and a magic that has resounded throughout the world for 6000 years.

Linen
Organic Indigo, tamarind vat
Beeswax resist

Baltimore, MD

Kerasynth

06–12–2018

Kerasynth is a speculative synthetically grown biological material that could replace all keratin-based animal fibers. The goal of Kerasynth is to eliminate the direct use of animals in the textile industry, while still utilizing keratin based animal fibers. This is made possible through the implementation of tissue engineering to grow Hair Follicle Germ (HFG) cells on microfluidic devices designed to provide the cells with nutrients and remove waste, maintaining the integrity of the fiber without the animal’s direct involvement. Made through collaboration with Erin Kirchner, Sydney Seih-Takata, Grace Kwon and Diana Eusebio.Baltimore, MD USA. May 2018. Presented at the MoMA July 2018, for the 2018 Biodesign Summit. Mentioned in Forbes, Smithsonian.com, Medium, along with other publications.

http://biodesignchallenge.org/mica-2018