The Department of Journalism under the Faculty of Arts and Design at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) held an opening ceremony for a four-day Attached to the Soil Project Photo Exhibition at the City Campus on Monday, 05 September 2022. The exhibition is set to end today, Thursday, 08 September 2022.
The event featured Professor Peter Glendenning from the Department of Art, History and Design at Michigan State University. He visited DUT to exhibit the photographic collaborations he held with the various Higher Education Institutions in South Africa, including the DUT Journalism students during the Attached to the Soil Project in 2019. The long-awaited exhibition was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The programme director was Blessing Xaba, one of the DUT Journalism students who had a chance to collaborate with Prof Glendenning in 2019. His picture of Ms Ela Gandhi was among the pictures exhibited. He thanked the Journalism Department and Prof Glendenning for the opportunity to partake in this international project, which he feels is in the right direction towards his vision of being a global icon.
In her welcome remarks, Professor Runette Kruger, the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Design at DUT said the exhibition is an outcome of the Attached to the Soil Project started by Prof Glendenning in 2019 commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the inauguration of Nelson Mandela. She indicated that at the time Prof Glendenning was a Fulbright Scholar in South Africa.
“This exhibition is the outcome of the first iteration after the damage that was caused by the pandemic to international projects. The long walk until here from 2019 was fortunately not as long as that undertaken by our former president. Prof Glendenning will be here to take this project forward with our students, whereby they will be the new owners of this project. The goal of this second iteration of the project that will go forward, is to encourage our students to create their own attachments to this project and gain experience in creative problem solving in terms of expressing aspirational message through the soil related metaphors, engaging in history from a dialogic perspective,” said Prof Kruger.
Furthermore, in the future this project can explore South Africa’s long walk to where it is currently after 1994. Prof Kruger challenged the current Journalism students to take the outcome of this project and expand upon it into the future. She proudly revealed that the photographs on exhibition will form part of the large project on a Global Youth Advancement Network site, placing the DUT participants on a global stage.
Prof Glendenning expressed he was proud of the DUT students’ participation and their remarkable contribution on this project. He commended the DUT Journalism Department team, especially Mrs Deseni Soobben for encouraging the students to give off their best on this project.
“This work has been under wraps for three years because of the pandemic. I am so happy that it can now be shared with the rest of South Africa and the world. The essence of the projects and their essential foundation is within the words of the young people like Blessing and others from this institution and elsewhere. It is the stories of ordinary, everyday people whose lives are really the essence of the work. You have the intersection of a young person who has aspirations, who has reflections of the past, reflections on the present, reflections and hopes for the future that are symbolised within their beautiful soil related metaphors,” explained Prof Glendenning.
He expressed he was looking forward to collaborating with the new group and that he was certain that they will continue to produce exceptional work.
Delivering the vote of thanks was Mrs Deseni Soobben, lecturer at DUT Journalism. She thanked Prof Glendenning for always availing himself to assist their department even when he is miles away. She also thanked her colleagues and students for their hard work and dedication in making the project a success.
Pictured: Professor Peter Glendenning from Michigan State University engaging with the Executive Dean: Faculty of Arts and Design, Professor Runette Kruger during the opening of the exhibition.
Simangele Zuma
