University of Johannesburg
2024

A Turbid Body, Suspended is an intervention created in a storage garage on the University of Johannesburg’s Bunting Campus. A large paper map of the Vaal Dam, made with industrial cotton waste and Dam water, is suspended from the rafters so that its shape becomes topographical. The Vaal Dam is the major municipal water source for Johannesburg, a landlocked city built in relation to gold extraction, far from rivers or sea. This hanging method abstracts the water body, making it unrecognisable in relation to a familiar ariel perspective of a geographical site. This encourages a prefacing of experiential, subjective knowledge, so that a visitor in the space may be able to imagine the Dam beyond its resource value. The broadcasting of birdsong (recorded at the Dam’s shore) brings attention to the nonhuman living from the artificial waterbody, as does the colour of the paper, referencing the green algae that thrives in the polluted, nitrate-rich water.

Chalk drawings, like research graffiti, cover the walls of the garage, offering entangled depictions of water collections, Dam views and receptacles. Outside the garage, poured acid green paper pulp evidences a seasonal river that passes by the garage, heading downhill towards rivers and eventually, the sea. These indicators highlight the watery forces changing the exhibition’s immediate environment, extending the concept of the work into the world beyond the garage.