Jeremy WaferFathom, 2020
‘Fathom’ is a sculptural work comprising thirty metres of thick rope with lead casts inserted at one-metre intervals, referencing sounding lines historically used to measure the depth of water from boats. Placed in a tangled coil on the gallery floor, the work displaces its intended function, becoming instead a meditation on orientation, distance, and the limits of comprehension.
It was included in 'Material Immaterial', an exhibition held at Goodman Gallery Johannesburg in 2023. With this body of work, Jeremy Wafer continues his sustained investigation into the entanglements of place, history, and the body through material. The body of work reflected the artist’s enduring preoccupation with systems of measurement, mapping, and the politics of land and sea. Through tactile and conceptual explorations, Wafer invites viewers to consider the often invisible frameworks, geographic, political, and mnemonic, through which land and identity are apprehended, shaped and contested.
