Join us for the opening reception of Walking, Lost and Found by Rachel Epp Buller accompanied by Natural Pressure: Caroline Branch and Maia Rauh!

July 5th through August 2nd

In conjunction with Connie Noyes' solo exhibition: "Dispatched" Compound Yellow is excited to present the work of Rachel Epp Buller: "Walking, Lost and Found" accompanied by Natural Pressure: Collaborative Seating by Caroline Branch & Maia Rauh

Opening reception: July 5th, 2025
2pm to 6pm

Walking, Lost and Found

I am pilgrim #15749 on the Walk of Wisdom, a self-guided path that winds through the eastern part of the Netherlands. In July 2024, a dear friend and I spent eight days walking alongside fields and waterways, atop dikes, up and down hills, through forests and sandy heaths. We walked through towns and villages, over bridges and canals, in sunshine and in rain.
Walking made new learning possible. I learned to know the feel of different surfaces through the soles of my feet. I learned to know the strength of my own body and the endurance needed to keep putting one foot in front of another. I learned to greet new neighbors as we repeatedly encountered brambles and nettles, yarrow and rowanberry, gradually attuning myself to the surroundings and learning to listen in this place.
The eight-part text of this sound piece is a meditation upon the rhythm of walking, getting lost and found, the strange becoming familiar as we learn to walk in a new way.

***The piece on exhibit here is a 2-channel version of an 8-channel sound piece that I made at the Sound Studies Institute, University of Alberta, Canada, in January 2025.

Rachel Epp Buller is a multimedia artist, avid walker, practitioner of Deep Listening, and mother of three. Her recent solo exhibitions include Invitations to Listen at the Mulvane Art Museum at Washburn University (2023), In/Visible Care at Outlook Gallery in Minneapolis (2022), Hoping You Are Well at the Salina Art Center (2020), and Taking Care and Other Words at Borough Road Gallery in London (2019). In June, she participated in the Walking & Art residency at Gibraltar Point on Toronto Island. She is a two-time Fulbright Scholar, to Germany and Canada, and her work was recently shortlisted for the international Marsarto Awards for Walking Art. She is a professor of Visual Arts and Design at Bethel College in Kansas.

Natural Pressure: Collaborative Seating by Caroline Branch & Maia Rauh

Natural Pressure in an interactive seating piece designed to accompany the sound work titled, “Walking, Lost & Found,” by Rachel Epp Buller. The bench's surface is inspired by the experience of walking on the different textures of the earth beneath us and how they can both cause discomfort and release. Various sizes and shapes of stones, foraged from nearby rivers in Madison, Wisconsin, are embedded in double woven fabric. This process of double weaving involves simultaneously creating two hand woven pieces of fabric on the loom. In this process the interchanging of the two fabrics creates seamless pockets for the rocks to rest.

In Buller’s piece, she reflects on the heaviness of her pack and how it transforms from a nagging discomfort to a dependable comfort. Rauh and Branch created weighted objects to sit with the listener throughout the duration of the piece. Made also from handwoven fabric these objects represent the comfort of heaviness and companionship.

These objects are to be held and played with while the listeners sit and listen.

Caroline Branch is an interdisciplinary craft artist from Richmond, VA. She graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2023 with a bachelors in Craft/Material studies. Branch also recently obtained a technical diploma in Cabinetry and Millwork from Madison Area Technical College in spring 2025. Finding comfort in the day-to-day oddities of life, Branch makes work that is both surreal and humourous in nature.

Maia Rauh is an artist and designer from Milwaukee, WI. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2024 with a Bachelors of Science in Textile Design and a certificate in Studio Arts. Rauh’s recent works are concentrated in weaving, exploring the visual complexities of pattern, color and texture.