FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

KIMBERLEY, NORTHERN PROVINCE – The William Humphreys Art Gallery (WHAG), one of three
National Art Museums in South Africa, will exhibit the 50 works of art that comprise the project titled
Attached to the Soil, beginning with an opening event on Tuesday, 17 September, on view through
December 31. Peter Glendinning, the American artist who created the works in collaboration with South
African youth during a 7-month Fulbright Scholar assignment in 2019, will be in attendance at the event,
which the public is invited to attend.

Attached to the Soil was the result of reflections by South African youth on the significance of Former
President Nelson Mandela’s aspirational metaphor, shared at his Inauguration as the first words to his
compatriots, in which he likened South Africans to different types of trees which were all attached to the
same soil.

Through a combination of oral-history stories, striking location portraits in photography made across all 9
Provinces of South Africa, and new aspirational metaphors proposed by youth to reflect their own and
their communities’ realities, the artworks present a significant set off insights formed in the 25th
anniversary year of the new democratic nation.

In his Foreword to the exhibition catalogue, Prof. Adam Habib, former Vice Chancellor of University of Witswatersrand, currently Director of the SOAS, University of London, and world-renowned scholar and public figure, described the significance of the artworks in this manner: “These photographs present the national psyche in a completely different way…a necessary corrective to the public narrative of what South Africa is and could be…a narrative that is needed now more than ever before. Peter Glendinning’s
South African collaborators have bared their souls and thus provided hope in the midst of social gloom.”
Glendinning, who serves as W.J. Beale Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University, is a widely
recognized photographer and teacher, whose courses on www.coursera.org have been enrolled by over
400,000 learners.

He commented, “This project could not have been achieved without the enthusiastic
collaboration of youth, whose aspirations for their country are central to the content, and the South
Africans across cultures and communities who posed in such striking ways, and shared their personal
stories, some quite tragic but all of them quite uplifting.”

WHAG Curator Chepape Makgato describes the exhibit as, “a powerful testament to the enduring spirit
of South Africa’s youth, who, like the trees in Mandela’s metaphor, remain deeply rooted in their
communities while aspiring to reach new heights. Through the lens of Peter Glendinning’s collaborative
vision, we witness not only the resilience of these young voices but also the hope they carry for a more
unified and progressive future. This exhibition is a visual dialogue between past and present, reflecting
the diverse yet interconnected identities of our nation.”

Attached: Portrait of Ntando Ngwenya, fashion designer, Johannesburg, in collaboration with Justice
Khosa, © 2019. Use granted for promotional reproduction purposes only.
Contact: Malikah Meyer, Curatorial Assistant Phone: 053 831 1724/5 Email:
malikah@whag.co.z