Kuzvuva Dumbu 2019
Kuzvuva Dumbu 2019 Found plastic-weave bags and wire frame 38 x 230 x 100 cm
Cross the River in a Crowd (installation) 2019
Cross the River in a Crowd (installation view) 2019
Mai MaBag 2019
Mai MaBag 2019 Found plastic-weave bags, black serpentine, custom-made fabric 240 x 122 x 110 cm
Mai MaBag (back view 1) 2019
Mai MaBag (back view 2) 2019
Mai MaBag (detail) 2019
Mai MaBag (detail) 2019
Cross the River in a Crowd (black) 2019
Cross the River in a Crowd and the Crocodile Won’t Eat You (black) 2019 Found plastic-weave bags and wire frames approx. 20 x 390 x 20 cm
Cross the River in a Crowd (blue) 2019
Cross the River in a Crowd and the Crocodile Won’t Eat You (blue) 2019 Found plastic-weave bags and wire frames approx. 20 x 390 x 20 cm
Footsack Empire 2019
Footsack Empire 2019 Found Plastic-weave bags 97 x 185 cm
Never say Never flyer 2008
“Daniel Halter’s work resonates with the kaleidoscopic logic of the bricoleur who dismantles the objects of culture only to re-assemble them so that out of the new relationships between their parts a pattern emerges, and hence a new object.
A book becomes a map; a map becomes a woven cloth; a popular saying becomes a political manifesto; stone becomes tablet; the word of God becomes a drug; a set of used phone cards are transformed into a doorway; blood becomes a ribbon and out of a flat wooden surface a small silver fish comes as a surprise. This process of taking apart is not merely destructive, for Halter’s process is akin to the labour of weaving, and as such unravelling the threads of culture, context and politics”.
– From the essay ‘Fabrication’ by Bettina Malcolmess in the exhibition catalogue
Given Another Chance in the Colonies 2014
Given Another Chance in the Colonies 2014 Found plastic-weave bag, custom-made tartan fabric
65 x 70 cm
Kure Ndokusina Kwachiri Unofa Wasvika 2014
Kure Ndokusina Kwachiri Unofa Wasvika 2014 Found plastic-weave bag, custom-made tartan fabric
65 x 70 cm
Kure ndokusina, kwachiri unofa wasvika. (Shona)
Far is where there is nothing, where something is that you will struggle to the death to reach. (Literal English translation)
Where there is a will there is a way. (Closest English equivalent proverb)
Shona Proverb
The nothing and something connoted by the proverb is “value” so far as there is nothing of value to the individual then such a thing remains unsought for, far out of reach. On the other hand, where an outcome is valued then all means and effort at the disposal of the individual will be marshaled to achieve it, thus nullifying the common understanding of “far.” The one aiming for the valued goal will expend effort even to death to reach it.
Traditionally the Shona people in Zimbabwe used several variations of this proverb such as:
- Kure ndokuna mai, kunemukadzi unofa waswika. Far is where mother is; where there is the woman you love you will expend all effort, even to death, to get there. (Literal English translation)
- Kure kwegava ndokusina mutsubvu. It is far for the jackal where there is no hubvu fruit tree. (Literal English translation)
Through observing the jackal the Shona people established hubvu, the fruit of the mutsubvu tree, as the animal’s favorite fruit. What the variations illustrate is that values differ from situation to situation: for a man the love for his wife or girlfriend surpasses that for his mother, for the jackal it is love for the hubvu fruit. It is the sought after goals that determine the time and effort to be expended and also one’s priorities.
Kure Ndokusina Mai Kune Mukadzi Unofa Wasvika 2014
Kure Ndokusina Mai Kune Mukadzi Unofa Wasvika 2014 Found plastic-weave bag, custom-made tartan fabric
65 x 70 cm
