Notes

"300 trillion Zimbabwe dollars represents the amount of Zimbabwe Dollars required to buy one US Dollar on the black market at the height of inflation in February 2009. The shredded banknotes in this work are Z$50 Billion Zimbabwean Special Agro (Agricultural) cheques. This currency was initially only intended for farmers, but it found its way into regular use because of the parallel functions with bearer cheques and the exponential rise of food prices."—Dan Halter

Dan Halter is informed by his position as a Zimbabwean currently living in South Africa. His work deals with his sense of dislocated national identity, human migration, and the dark humor of present realities in southern Africa. This is largely a backlash due to a history of oppression that continues to manifest today. Halter uses ubiquitous materials and engages with local popular visual strategies as a form of expression. His work often exploits the language of craft and curio in a conceptual art context. He explores various techniques of fabrication, and this frequently involves collaboration. For the last four years, Dan Halter has worked with Bienco Ikete, a refugee from the DRC. Together they have organized a way of weaving paper artworks.¹

Dan Halter was born in Zimbabwe. In 2001, he graduated from the University of Cape Town with a BAFA. His solo exhibitions include Take Me to Your Leader, João Ferreira Gallery, Cape Town (2006); Mafuta Farm, Dillon + Lee, New York City, NY, USA (2017); Zimbabwean Traffic, Skövde Konstmuseet, Skövde, Sweden (2017); and Patience Can Cook a Stone, WHATIFTHEWORLD/Gallery, Cape Town (2018). Group shows include Energy Flash – The Rave Movement, M HKA (Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen); the 16th and 17th VideoBrasil (São Paulo) in 2007 and 2011; the 10th Havana Biennale in 2009; the Dakar Biennale in 2010; and Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art. He has been an artist in residence in Zürich, Cologne, Turin, Rio de Janeiro, and Dufftown bin Scotland.

^1. https://www.dillongallery.com/dan-halter-mafuta-farm, accessed 22/01/2023.

Provenance

Acquired from the artist by the current owner.

Property of Collectors.

Exhibited

Dillon + Lee, New York, Mafuta Farm, solo exhibition, 15 November 2017 to 17 January 2018.