"Encircling the Land"  is a photographic investigation of the Tswaing meteorite impact site by Stanley Sher.

Imagery from space and research on craters like Vredefort and Tswaing have established that meteorite impacts were surprisingly frequent in earth’s history, having both cataclysmic as well as life-enabling consequences for our planet. Most of these effects are hidden from us by time and geological processes which have further altered the landscape, covering the past. The Tswaing impact crater being relatively well preserved, provides visible form to these embedded events from our deep past.
 
This exhibition of 360° panoramic photographs emerges out of a series of encounters over a period of 6 months in the Tswaing meteorite impact crater. Time of a different order, is also pivotal in the photographic process, which attempts to assemble fragmented moments within a single image. The inevitable inconsistencies of light and shifting viewpoint over the 360° rotation contribute to the complexity of actually apprehending this landscape. The images retain these disruptive elements, including the digital ‘noise’ which is an artefact of a digitised process.
 
In exploring the hermeneutic question of how to read and apprehend the landscape, the exhibition is the visual component of an investigation which establishes a dialogue, embracing understandings and perceptions from the arts and sciences. The geology and history of the Tswaing crater forms the backdrop to this dialogue which considers traditional and contemporary readings, representations and interactions with landscape.