“[rustling] will feature recent sculpture and video work from the four artists and will be a delicate interplay between nature-made and man-made, inside and outside, and the space that exists (or doesn’t exist) in the in-between.

The show will also act as a reunion for the artists, whose individual orbits around The University of Texas at Austin brought them together over time. “We worked at the VAC together for years,” Rachael said of video artist Zoe, who is in town from Massachusetts for the show. Emily remarked on their being at UT “…at totally different times. I don’t think we ever overlapped. And once upon a time Rachael was actually my teacher, but now is a collaborator and friend.” Michael, the final artist in the show, also attended UT and now lives in Pittsburgh.

“I feel like us being far from each other, planning this whole show is part if it too,” said Emily as we discussed how their work will live in the unique and intimate Shed~Show space.

Rachael added, “Yeah we’re (Rachael and Emily) the only ones that live here right now, but both Michael and Zoe lived in Austin for a long time, but Zoe moved in October and Michael moved in January. So we are re-learning how to collaborate and all of us have worked together a bunch of times. So we’re thinking about how we can reach across distance.”

As they shared their desire to hold onto relationships they found in Austin, I couldn’t help but think of my own and the abundance of similar relationships that exist in and around a transient city like ours in the wake of a global pandemic.