Name: ECHOES OF WHAT REMAINS - by Elgin Rust
Start: 2026-06-04T18:00:00+02:00
Location: 160 Strand Street De Waterkant , 8001 Cape Town, South Africa

Public Art Exhibition Opening
Wine, Japanese Iced Tea and complimentary Canapés.
Echoes of What Remains is a collage of framed tinted cyanotype original one-off prints, size variable. The source material
is empty plastic water bottles I collected over the last year to experiment with. Some of the paper used were tinted using beetroot, carrot, or turmeric.
After exposure, the prints are either bleached and or stained using coffee, green tea, and acorns. The unpredictability of the cyanotype process allows each image to emerge as a beautiful gift of the moment, rendering each print
unique and precious.

The natural materials used to create the cyanotypes in my studio stand in contrast to the industrially produced synthetic water bottle, which is considered one of the top pollutants of our oceans and, by default, our bodies.
Nanoparticles of the degraded material that enter the water cycle are found in fish and drinking water. In this manner, the chemicals enter our physical systems. I believe we are just becoming aware of the tip of the iceberg when looking at the damage the foreign chemicals are causing to our natural systems.
Turning something sinister and potentially dangerous into something aesthetically pleasing, something thrown away into something precious, is a transformative act that inspires me and continues to motivate my practice.
I plan to expand the collection with cyanotype prints on wood substrate, cotton fabric, and plying with 3D relief castings, further combining opposites of natural and artificial materials and forms. The first cyanotype on the next page is a print on plywood.
Elgin Helga Rust is a Cape Town-based artist, born in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 1974. While establishing a career in the film industry within the art department, she enrolled at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, in 2004.
She received her Master of Fine Art (MFA) with distinction in 2010. Since then, she has developed an oeuvre that spans printmaking, sculpture, and performative installations— produced through both self-initiated and collaborative projects.
Guided by an approach she describes as finding “truth through play,” her work explores transformative material processes to unpack issues of social concern—ranging from judicial structures to the emotional, physical, and psychological effects of found objects. Rust has participated in solo and group exhibitions both locally and internationally.
Exhibition venues include:
The Atelier of Alexandria (Egypt), Michaelis Gallery (Cape Town), AVA Gallery (Cape Town), the guerilla gallery (Johannesburg), Modern Art Projects (Graskop, South Africa), That Art Fair (Cape Town), and VAS – Virtual Art Space (Alexandria, Egypt).
Most recently, her work was featured in Joburg Fringe 2021 and TAF Paper 2023.
Her work is held in private collections, as well as in the Ellerman House Contemporary Art Collection, Sanlam Collection, and UCT Works of Art Collection, Cape Town, ZA.
Currently, Rust is expanding her studio-based printmaking practice, using environmentally non-invasive techniques
to develop new bodies of work incorporating found plastic objects.