Allusions to the body: Jeremy Wafer's Oval Sculptures.

Abstract

This dissertation is primarily an investigation into the sculpture of Jeremy Wafer and specifically his oval series, Red Ovals (1995), African Forms (1996), Red Ovals (second series) (1998) and Large White Oval (2004). The aim is to establish how, from a post-structuralist and anthropomorphic position, these non-illusionistic sculptural forms may engage the viewer experientially by evoking the body visually, physically and spatially. Wafer’s reductive articulation of surface, material and form is analysed in terms of notions of secrecy and metaphorical referencing specifically relating to the human form. A ‘sense of disquiet’ is evoked by their ambiguity, and this aspect is confronted by looking at various dichotomies and their transition and hybridisation to form the ‘unifying pattern’ that Wafer’s sculptures present. The role of process, repetition and seriality are researched within this context. The works from my Simulacra exhibition in May 2005 at the Substation on the University of the Witwatersrand Campus are discussed according to the above aspects, as they are relevant to my own sculptures.