My creative practice is devoted to care and listeningacross time. Through prints and artist books, I explore family and cultural histories, shared bodies of knowledge, and traditions of making –crochet, embroidery, paper-folding, and cut-paper work – that are passed between generations. Such matrilineal knowledge is not written down but is of the body – an embodied knowledge transferred between hands, in intimate settings. My current project explores letter-writing as an act of relational care, in past, present, and future contexts. Through a practice of handwritten correspondences, I have come to think of letters not only as a way of exchanging thoughts and ideas but also as a form of active listening. Letters are an invitation to listen, almost a contractual agreement of care for another person. I believe that such listening is directly connected to a slowing down, a taking time to take care, and this quality is what I seek to reflect in all parts of the work. The letters I write and receive inspire drawings, artist books, letterpress prints, epistolary texts, audio narratives, and embroidery: through the art, I draw attention to the ways we care for each other with our words.
Rachel Epp Buller (US) is a feminist, printmaker, book artist, art historian, university professor, and mother of three. Her artistic, written, and curatorial work addresses these intersections, focusing on the maternal body and feminist care in contemporary art contexts.