Wet Wipes

Co-exhibitors:

Saskia Olde-Wolbers and David Cotterrell

 

Two artists with independent practices presented works united through a convergence of focus on the enigmatic surface and depths of the Thames at Deptford. At Empathy & Risk, installations involving spherical projection, underwater sonar filming, and Pepper’s Ghost imaging offer a study of incompatible perspectives inspired by a shared landscape. This exhibition is presented as part of the DeptfordX Festival 2025.

Saskia Olde Wolbers’ Video, Sonar Jetty (NotW), was created by capturing imagery with a sonar fish-finder around the nearby decaying News International Jetty in the Thames in Deptford. The ill-fated News of the World tabloid was distributed from here, and it helped the spread of questionable narratives and practices.

Every technology comes with its own hauntology, and the mirrored sonar imagery conjures up futuristic beings growing out of sonar data stripes. River spirits that could act as guardians to the sites from which they were extracted. Sonar costumes will be on show alongside the video.

David Cotterrell’s installation work, Precession: Estuary, is a multi-component spatial video project which reflects on the relationship between the search for the sublime and the fear of mortality. It presents a bucolic view of the melancholic landscape of the post-industrial Thames and its hinterland estuary. This poignant yet mesmerising view is experienced through three virtual projections of observers defining themselves through their relationship to an unattainable horizon.