---
title: "An art exhibition that captures young South Africans' hopes, 'fears, aspirations and disappointments'"
description: "The ‘Attached to the Soil’ exhibition began in 2019 as a series of 50 three-part artworks, finalised by the artist Peter Glendinning during his seven months as a Fulbright Scholar in South Africa."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "INSPIRED BY MADIBA"
author: "Peter Glendinning"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/peter-glendinning/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-02-23-an-art-exhibition-that-captures-young-south-africans-hopes-fears-aspirations-and-disappointments/"
published: "2023-02-23T20:00:22"
updated: "2023-02-23T08:45:21"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 610
---

# An art exhibition that captures young South Africans' hopes, 'fears, aspirations and disappointments'

> The ‘Attached to the Soil’ exhibition began in 2019 as a series of 50 three-part artworks, finalised by the artist Peter Glendinning during his seven months as a Fulbright Scholar in South Africa.

By Peter Glendinning · Published 23 February 2023, 22:00 SAST · Updated 23 February 2023, 10:45 SAST

## Key points
- Attached to the Soil, an art project led by Fulbright Scholar Peter Glendinning, celebrates the 25th anniversary of Nelson Mandela's inaugural address. Collaborating with 50 young South Africans, each work consists of a three-part story that reflects on the past and expresses aspirations for the future. The project has been praised by Professor Adam Habib as a source of hope in the midst of social gloom. Through their stories, young South Africans have bared their souls and shared their hopes, fears and aspirations. The works will be on display at the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory until August, after which individuals can add their own projects created with phone cameras and unique creativity. Attached to the Soil is a powerful reminder that we are all intimately attached to this beautiful country and its people.
- Peter Glendinning’s Attached to the Soil project, a series of 50 three-part artworks, began in 2019 to commemorate President Nelson Mandela’s 1994 inaugural address.
- Each work is a collaboration between the artist and a young South African reflecting on their aspirations for their country, in the form of a soil-related metaphor.
- A third collaborator was a person with a life experience related to the young person’s metaphor, whose story was captured in words and photography.
- The 50 works will be on display at the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory until the end of August and serve as foundation for new phase of expression by young South Africans.

## Content

In his 1994 inaugural address, President Nelson Mandela shared the following metaphor expressing his aspirations for the new South Africa and its people, one that most viewed as hope for unity: “I have no hesitation in saying each one of us is as intimately attached to the soil of this beautiful country as are the famous jacaranda trees of Pretoria and the mimosa trees of the bushveld. Each time one of us touches the soil of this land, we feel a sense of personal renewal.”

*Attached to the Soil* began in 2019, the 25th anniversary of that statement, as a series of 50 three-part artworks, finalised by the artist Peter Glendinning during his seven months as a Fulbright Scholar in South Africa.

![‘The thorns of the past that have wounded the land must be cleared before a bountiful harvest of the future can be ours.’ – Vukile Macingusana, University of Fort Hare.
Above: Zandisile Gunaha. Photo: Peter Glendinning (c) 2019](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/5wn5ZgStykXY2RX-mv09T70otEU=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Glendinning-Soil-exhibition-7.jpg)

*‘The thorns of the past that have wounded the land must be cleared before a bountiful harvest of the future can be ours.’ – Vukile Macingusana, University of Fort Hare. (Photo: Peter Glendinning (c) 2019)*

![‘When the soil is in your blood, mixed with the sweat and tears of past generations, you can work the land all night and day.’ – Marianne Hennig, North-West University.
Above: Kerneels Greyling. Photo: Peter Glendinning (c) 2019](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/_ht6wjaIhHWNSyUluaRrnTLAxe0=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Glendinning-Soil-exhibition-6.jpg)

*‘When the soil is in your blood, mixed with the sweat and tears of past generations, you can work the land all night and day.’ – Marianne Hennig, North-West University. (Photo: Peter Glendinning (c) 2019)*

Each work resulted from his collaborations with a young South African who shared their aspirations for their country, their reflections on what they had inherited from past generations, in the form of their own soil-related metaphor. A third collaborator was a person with a life experience related to the young person’s metaphor, whose story was the subject of a portrait both in words and photography. Each young person’s aspirations and each subject’s story are true to themselves while also being representative of so many others like them.

*Read in*Daily Maverick:*“*[*A stitch in sacred time – exhibition weaves our oceans back into the realm of the divine*](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-09-05-a-stitch-in-sacred-time-exhibition-weaves-our-oceans-back-into-the-realm-of-the-divine/)*”*

As Professor Adam Habib wrote in his insightful foreword to the project: “It tells the stories of these individuals, capturing their hopes, fears, aspirations and disappointments. It speaks of a people who are distinguished by their diversity, emanating as they do from a variety of racial, cultural, religious and linguistic backgrounds. All have been marked by the tragic history of racialised exploitation in this land. But all demonstrate in their activities, ambitions and voice how this tragedy did not scar their souls… Peter Glendinning’s South African collaborators have bared their souls and thus provided hope in the midst of social gloom…”

![‘Society is like soil, shifting and changing for new species that arrive but sometimes becoming less supportive of older ones.’ – Lifang Zhang, Rhodes University.
Above: Junkin Humphrey Chan. Photo: Peter Glendinning (c) 2019](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/NWPtrmCFKQJln7QHl0RyvPmlGfQ=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Glendinning-Soil-exhibition-5.jpg)

*‘Society is like soil, shifting and changing for new species that arrive but sometimes becoming less supportive of older ones.’ – Lifang Zhang, Rhodes University. (Photo: Peter Glendinning (c) 2019)*

The 50 works that will be on display at the [Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory](https://www.nelsonmandela.org/multimedia/entry/south-africa-president-jacob-zuma-opens-nelson-mandela-centre-of-memory-1) until the end of August are the foundation for a new phase of expression, in which young South Africans may add their own completed projects, created without Glendinning’s participation, crafted with their phone cameras, intelligence and unique creativity. [See here](https://globalyouth.isp.msu.edu/attached-soil/) for more information. **DM168**

![‘When the ancestors are unsettled below the soil, we will all be unsettled above the soil.’ – Binjun
Hu, Rhodes University.
Above: Binjun Hu. Photo: Peter Glendinning (c) 2019](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/KKxFn9SdVxVDYLRfWD7KHEGFpcA=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Glendinning-Soil-exhibition-4.jpg)

*‘When the ancestors are unsettled below the soil, we will all be unsettled above the soil.’ – BinjunHu, Rhodes University. (Photo: Peter Glendinning (c) 2019)*

![‘As dried leaves are scattered they are reborn as they nourish the soil. Through love, we scatter- lings can be joined together as well.’ – Santjie Viljoen, Cape Peninsula University of Technology.
Above: Zuliwe Ntsomi. Photo: Peter Glendinning (c) 2019](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/EDoUxM8ryVxs6NTPOXjj_JDRQCk=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Glendinning-Soil-exhibition-3.jpg)

*‘As dried leaves are scattered they are reborn as they nourish the soil. Through love, we scatterlings can be joined together as well.’ – Santjie Viljoen, Cape Peninsula University of Technology. (Photo: Peter Glendinning (c) 2019)*

![‘The marks on the soil from the people of our past were made to share a message, not just with their descendants but with all of us. – Babette Ludick, University of the Free State
Above: Coral Knobel and Jan Fourie. Photo: Peter Glendinning (c) 2019](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/nbCj1RTLTKdP4Ii9MG7I6zVkhzE=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Glendinning-Soil-exhibition-2.jpg)

*‘The marks on the soil from the people of our past were made to share a message, not just with their descendants but with all of us. – Babette Ludick, University of the Free State. (Photo: Peter Glendinning (c) 2019)*

*This story first appeared in our weekly*Daily Maverick 168*newspaper, which is available countrywide for R25.*

![Image](https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/DM-18022023-001.jpg)