Jeremy WaferLocation 13, 2023
1: 50 000 scale Government issue map of various South African locations, ink and paint additions
77 x 59 cm
Jeremy Wafer’s location works on found maps form part of his broader inquiry into how space is measured, named, and claimed. By marking, altering, or overlaying printed maps (often institutional or administrative in origin) Wafer disrupts their assumed neutrality and objectivity. These works interrogate the authority of cartographic systems and their role in the colonial and political control of land.
In repurposing these documents, Wafer explores ideas of displacement, memory, and the instability of place. His minimal interventions draw attention to the friction between personal experience and imposed structure, asking viewers to reconsider the ways in which maps both reveal and obscure the complex realities of the landscapes they depict.
