INHERITED OBSESSIONS, conversations with an exhibition

143pp., b/w & colour illus., paperback, Pretoria, 2022

Published to accompany the exhibition, The Ditsong National Museum of Cultural History, Pretoria, September 2022-January 2023.

Contributions include:

"Threads Between Photographs as Image Objects in Collections and Photographic Images of Collecting" by Lize Kriel

"Dis/Tending the Museum: Archival intervention and disruption at The Ditsong National Museum of Cultural History" by Matthew McClure

"Bulldozing and Violence Disguised in Preservation: Curating and preserving the confiscated objects at the Ditsong National Museum of Cultural History" by Motsane Gertrude Seabela

"After the Fire: Thoughts on documents and archives" by Jill Weintroub

"Fuze's Gourd: Umunti kafi aphele" by Justine Wintjes

"Objects on Life Support: Items on pallets and bundles in cupboards" by Laura de Harde".

"Inherited Obsessions has traces and hints of questions that remind us to guard the past, to give it a presence in the 'here' and 'now", and to remember and to respond to an obligation that must include a reflexive and honest acknowledgement of the stark divisions and inequalities that are the lived realities of the majority of South Africans." Professor Siona O'Connell, from her foreword

Laura de Harde spent two years as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of the Arts at the University of Pretoria. This exhibition is the culmination of her fellowship, and was inspired by conversations she had with the co-curator of the exhibition, Motsane Gertrude Seabela.