Patience can Cook a Stone

DA N H A LT E R .

PAT I E N C E CA N C O O K A S TO N E .

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The title of Dan Halter’s most recent solo exhibition ‘Patience Can Cook a Stone’ finds its source in a Fulfulde proverb (Munyal deefan hayre), which advises that even the most seemingly insurmountable problems can be overcome with patience and endurance. This becomes a theme that the artist plays-out in a number of different ways throughout this body of work.

death of the colonial state. Birth is represented by the Maxim gun (the weapon of choice for British imperial conquest), while death is embodied by an AK-47, a testament to the guerrilla warfare that led to Zimbabwean independence. Other references to tombstones include rubbings from the gravesites of Cecil John Rhodes and Chenjerai “Hitler” Hunzvi, the self-proclaimed ‘biggest terrorist in Zimbabwe’.

Perhaps the most striking example of this is Halter’s arrangement of five engraved baby teeth placed inside a stokie slipper. Entitled The Revenge of 400 Years is Losing its Baby Teeth, the work adapts an Italian proverb – a hundred-year-old revenge still has its baby teeth – to suggest that the historical mistreatment of Africans through slavery and colonialism is finally starting to be addressed seriously. In employing ‘tooth fairy’ motifs, the work also refers to the necessity of redress, the complexities of which are picked up by many other pieces in the exhibition.

More so than previous exhibitions, there is an overarching thread of violence which snakes through ‘Patience Can Cook a Stone’. To an extent, this has always existed in Halter’s work through his unpacking of ideas of displacement, xenophobia, Zimbabwe’s colonial history, and the country’s subse­quent socio-economic and political crisis, but it is more pronounced and specific in the newer works. In venturing down this thematic path, Halter has by no means abandoned the shrewd interplay between materials and signification for which he is recognised; he has merely channelled it through a slightly darker bent.

Tombstones serve as another recurring metaphor for the transience (however gradual) of particular periods of unrest. Where All Problems End / Mupedzanhamo depicts a tombstone for Rhodesia, bookended with the two weapons that encompass the birth and

For instance, Heidi und Heinz in Afrika and 26 Chaplin Road Blaudruck are two stylised shweshwe cloths produced while Dan Halter was on a residency

in Germany with CAT Cologne in 2017. Directly engaging with the particular history of blaudruck / shweshwe fabric (brought to southern Africa by German and Swiss settlers in the 19th century and subsequently adopted by many South African cultures in idiosyncratic ways) Halter used the fabric as a means of examining a particularly brutal attack on his parents (the titular Heidi and Heinz) in their home in Zimbabwe. The works were produced in Einbeck at the oldest factory in Europe still producing blaudruck (founded in 1638).

The artworks in ‘Patience Can Cook a Stone’ were conceived and largely concluded prior to the recent political shakeup in Zimbabwe which saw Robert Mugabe ousted from power after 37 years in November 2017. Many of the works explicitly capture the cumulative sense of dread, hopelessness and stoicism experienced by the people of Zimbabwe in the wake of agricultural collapse, hyperinflation and the meta­ phorical sense of being ‘trapped in a burning building’ (Kuwona Hutsi). Amidst these works, the tombstone The Clothes of The Dead White Man / obroni wawu bears an unexpectedly prescient epitaph etched upon its black granite: The day the old man disappears is when the hyena shits grey hair.

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1. The Modern Traveller, 2016 Text from The Modern Traveller by Hilaire Belloc (1898) Hand-woven archival ink-jet prints 29,7 x 21 cm

The Maxim gun was first used by Britain’s colonial forces in the 1893–1894 First Matabele War in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). During the Battle of the Shangani, 700 soldiers fought off 5,000 warriors with just four Maxim guns. It played an important role in the swift European colonization of Africa in the late 19th century. The extreme lethality was employed to devastating effect against obsolete charging tactics, when native opponents could be lured into pitched battles in open terrain. As it was put by Hilaire Belloc, in the words of the figure “Blood” in his poem “The Modern Traveller”: Whatever happens, we have got The Maxim gun, and they have not.

Lobengula’s troops were a disciplined force by precolonial African standards, and were equipped with both assegais and Martini Henry rifles, but the British pioneers’ Maxim guns, which had never before been

used in battle, far exceeded expectations, according to an eyewitness “mow[ing] them down literally like grass”. By the time the Matabele withdrew, they had suffered around 1,500 fatalities; the BSAP, on the other hand, had lost only four men. The devastating effectiveness of the Maxims was such that they cut down wave after wave of advancing Matabele. In one engagement, for example, 50 company soldiers with just four Maxim guns fought off 5,000 Ndebele warriors.

2. Dialogue With The Youth, 2017 Rotten wisdom teeth 52 x 35 cm (Framed)

Inspired by Martin Kippenberger’s work. One night in Berlin, after allegedly drunkenly parading as a Nazi at the punk club SO36 (which he helped run), Kippenberger was severely beaten and hospitalized.

The next day he had a photographer take shots of his bandaged, swollen face, from which he then painted a self-portrait titled “Dialogue with the Youth of Today,” (1981).

3. Tombstone for Rhodesia, 2016 Black granite 40 x 69,5 x 6,5 cm Thanks Pro Helvetia

The Maxim gun was used by a small number of settlers to colonise the country they called Rhodesia.

90 years later this colony became Zimbabwe with the help of another weapon: the AK-47. These two guns can be seen as bookends for Rhodesia and this is its tombstone.

4. Beware The Ghost of History, 2016 Chenjerai “Hitler” Hunzvi’s Tombstone Rubbing 74 x 42,5cm Thanks Pro Helvetia

Born with the name Chenjerai – meaning’beware’ in Shona and taking the nom-de-guerre of “Hitler” in the Rhodesian Bush War, Hunzvi served as Chairman of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association beginning in 1997. In 2000 Hunzvi led the campaign involving war veterans and other supporters of ZANU-PF in the seizure of whiteowned land. During parliamentary elections in 1990, he incited followers to intimidate and harass members of the opposition group, the Movement for Democratic Change. Calling himself “the biggest terrorist in Zimbabwe” he was identified by numerous witnesses as participant in beatings and torture, and his medical clinic was labelled a “torture chamber” by Amnesty International in 2000. Hunzvi was elected to parliament in 2000, but died in 2001 in Harare’s Parirenyatwa Hospital. His death was variably ascribed to malaria, a heart condition, or AIDS. 5. Bamba Zonke, 2016 Take/grab everything – Zulu Found plastic-weave bag, custom-made tartan fabric 65 x 70 cm

I have been using the cheap Chinese-made plasticweave bags that have become synonymous with migrants all over the world, as a material in my artwork for some time. Called bianzhidai in China and red-white-blue bags in Hong Kong, these bags have taken on different monikers around the world reflecting the immigrant demographics in different regions. Examples include: ‘Ghana Must Go’ bags in Nigeria, ‘Türken Koffer’ or ‘Polen Tasche’ in Germany, ‘Chinatown Tote’ in the US, ‘Guyanese Samsonite’ in the Caribbean, ‘Bangladeshi Bag’ in the UK, and ‘Shangaan or Zimbabwe Bag’ in South Africa.

6. The Past is a Foreign Country, 2017 Found plastic-weave bag, custom-made tartan fabric 65 x 70 cm

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7. Native Soil, 2017 Hand Woven farmnames 79 x 91,5 cm

In the year 2000 the Zimbabwean government began a policy of Fast-track land reform. This involved seizing white-owned farms in order to compensate war veterans who had fought in the bush war. These farm invasions were often violent and proved very detrimental to the economy - which was based largely on agriculture. The country has been suffering a socioeconomic and political crisis ever since.

8. Domboremari (red), 2017 Lino print 100 x 88 cm

This large linocut was made at Warren Editions and is based on an engraving of the balancing rocks found on many Zimbabwean banknotes. Four different sets of this currency were issued due to the hyperinflation there, and the notes were printed in numerous colours. The balancing rocks are found on around 50 different Zimbabwean bank notes. In Shona they are referred to as ‘domboremari’, the ‘money rocks’.

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9. Z$57,718,918 2017 Map of Zimbabwean farming regions woven with a progression of shredded Zimbabwean bank notes that amount to Z$57,718,918 88,5 x 81,5 cm

When Veiwed upside down the numerical values in the title can be ascribed alphabetical ones in this map the corresponding values can be read as

10. Z$535,507,918 2018 Map of Zimbabwean farming regions woven with a progression of shredded Zimbabwean bank notes that amount to Z$535,507,918 87,5 x 79,5 cm

When Veiwed upside down the numerical values in the title can be ascribed alphabetical ones in this map the corresponding values can be read as

These two maps are part of a series of maps showing the different farming regions in Zimbabwe that have been woven with different amounts of Zimbabwean currency. The amounts form coded messages as certain numbers can be read as letters in the alphabet when viewed upside-down. These are designed to evade the censorship of communications critical of the government.

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11. The Hard Boiled Egg Index, 2018 Semi-precious stone eggs 28 x 24 x 6 cm

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With hyperinflation out of control in Zimbabwe the black market exchange rate to the US Dollar changed constantly. In 2008 innovative locals adopted The Hard Boiled Egg Index to determine a fair value of exchange rate. The Hard Boiled Egg Index works on the premise that across Africa, US$1 buys around seven eggs.

12.Kuwona Hutsi, 2017 Matchsticks and dirty US currency from Zimbabwe 33 x 31 cm

Kuwona hutsi ‘seeing smoke, i.e. having smoke in the eyes’ and by extension, ‘being caught in a burning building’, all have the connotations of one being in an unsustainable, difficult, hopeless and confusing situation. The matchsticks trace the outline of the signature of Robert Mugabe.

13. Z$100 Trillion, 2017 Hand-woven archival ink-jet prints 162,5 x 81,5 cm

The Z$100 trillion note was the largest ever printed in Zimbabwe. It came at a time when hyperinflation had soared so high that it reached Z$300 trillion to the US Dollar on the black market in February 2009. Shortly afterwards the Zimbabwean money was abandoned in favour of US currency. The Z$100 trillion note quickly became a collector’s item.

14. 100 RMB, 2018 Hand-woven archival ink-jet prints 168 x 82,5 cm

In 2015 the Zimbabwean Minister of finance announced that they would make the Chinese yuan their main reserve currency and legal tender after China cancelled US$40 million debts. However this has not materialized. Currently there are nine currencies that are legal tender in Zimbabwe but 90% of transactions are in US dollars.

15. US$1, 2017 Hand-woven archival ink-jet prints 173 x 72 cm

US dollars are referred to as magirinhi ‘greens’, huni nyoro ‘firewood that is not dry’ and mashizha ‘leaves, which are usually green’.

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16. Zimbabwe (black), 2016 Hand-woven archival ink-jet prints 75 x 118 cm 17. When in Rome Do as the Romans Do 2016 Hand-woven archival ink-jet prints 80 x 120 cm

Occasionally there is a Chinese phrase which translates very neatly into Eng­lish through an equivalent phrase, this is one of those cases.

18. China Plate, 2018 Porcelain plate 33 cm diameter

In South African / Zimbabwean slang: China can mean – a friend as in the greeting ‘Howzit my china?’

Likely origin: Cockney rhyming slang ‘China plate’ meaning ‘mate’ from early British immigrants.

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As a result of the deteriorating economic environ­ ment and a worsening human rights record, Zimbabwe’s traditional aid donors and partners from the EU and the west withdrew their commercial and political support. In the midst of Western isolation and sanctions, Zimbabwe decided to look east.

In 2003 Mugabe introduced his ‘Look East’ policy, which aimed to expand trade relations with Asia, especially China. In announcing the decision, Mugabe said:“We have turned east where the sun rises, and given our backs to the west, where the sun sets.”

Generally speaking Zimbabwe exports raw materials to China and in return imports cheap finished goods.

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19. Yes Boss, 2017 Chinese scroll from Shanghai 180 x 43 cm

20. 26 Chaplin Road Blaudruck / Shweshwe, 2017 Blaudruck cotton fabric handmade at Einbecker Blaudruck 70 x 71 cm Thanks CAT Cologne 21. Heidi und Heinz in Afrika, 2017 Blaudruck cotton fabric handmade at Einbecker Blaudruck 70 x 71 cm Thanks CAT Cologne

‘Shweshwe’ cloth is also known as ‘German print’, ‘sejeremane’ in Sotho, ‘ijeremani’ in Zulu and ‘ujumani’ in Xhosa after 19th century German and Swiss settlers who imported blaudruck (“blue print”) fabric. They used it for their clothing and helped entrench it in South African culture.

My grandfather came from Switzerland in the 1930s and settled in Zimbabwe where he built the house that I grew up in and where later, my parents were attacked by a gang of thieves. They were beaten black and blue with golf clubs and left Zimbabwe soon afterwards.

In October 2017 I was invited by CAT Cologne to do a residency in Germany. I was fortunate enough to work in Einbeck at the oldest factory in Europe still producing blaudruck founded in 1638.

Using the blue print (blaudruck) of the house my grandfather built and stylised bruises (bruise as blue print) I designed my own blaudruck. I also used my fingerprint as a design element as it evokes a crime scene and puts me into the picture.

22. Patience can cook a stone, 2016 Zimbabwe Black 74 x 55 x 3.5 cm Thanks Pro Helvetia

He added “I don’t know what you think we should do? Dig him up? Perhaps his spirit might rise again and what shall we do? So I say to my people ‘listen, let him stay down there’. Cecil Rhodes, well, that is history now.”

23. Zimbabwe Will Never Be A Colony Again 2, 2016 Embroidered Zanu PF textile 115 x 117 cm

Mugabe liked to repeat the slogan ‘Zimbabawe will never be a colony again’ so often that the variation ‘Zimbabwe will never eat polony again’ began to do the rounds as a joke.

South Africans and Zimbabweans refer to bologna exclusively as polony, although South African polony is typically made using highly processed meat. These processed meat products are typically an artificially bright pink color, and are foods for low-income people due to their low cost.

24. Rubbing out Rhodes, 2016 Cecil John Rhodes’ Tombstone Rubbing Handmade Zimbabwean paper 61 x 83 cm Thanks Pro Helvetia

Rhodes decreed in his will that he was to be buried in Matobo Hills in Zimbabwe. After his death in the Cape in 1902, his body was transported there by train.

After the successful Rhodes Must Fall campaign at the University of Cape Town, former president Robert Mugabe weighed in: “We in Zimbabwe had forgotten about Cecil Rhodes until South Africa said it has his statue in Cape Town, where he was the minister of the Cape and mischievously wanted to also take control of Zimbabwe. We have his corpse, you can keep his statue.”

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25. Clothes of the Dead White Man / Where All Problems End, 2018 Bales of aid clothing Dimensions variable

Clothes donated to charity and as aid for Africa mostly end up being sold at markets there. What isn’t bought in shops is, more often than not, sold to textile merchants, who then sort, grade and export the surplus garments - converting what began as donations into tradable goods. In countries like Ghana this has come at a cost, destroying the local textile manufacturing industry.

“There’s a moment of magic where a gift turns into a commodity,” says Brooks. “Like many used items, on the surface second-hand clothes may appear to have very little value, but through processes of sorting and transporting - turning disorderly objects into an ordered commodity - they are reproduced as retailable assets.”

The language of second-hand clothing markets Nigeria: “okirika” (bend down boutique) or even “London clothes” Ghana: “obroni wawu” (clothes of the dead white man) Zambia: “salaula” (‘selecting from a bale by rummaging) Congo: “sola” (to choose) Zimbabwe: “mupedzanhamo” (where all problems end) Kenya & Tanzania: “mitumba” (bundles) or “kafa ulaya” (clothes of the dead whites)

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26. The Veldt, 2013 Woven archival inkjet prints onto acid-free paper.

A short story by Ray Bradbury 42 x 63 cm

‘The Veldt’ is a science fiction short story by American author Ray Brad­bury. Originally appearing as ‘The World the Children Made’ in the 23 September 1950 issue of The Saturday Evening Post, it was republished under its current name in the 1951 anthology ‘The Illustrated Man’.

In the story, a mother and father struggle with their technologically ad­van­ced home taking over their role as parents, and their children becoming uncooperative as a result of their lack of discipline.

27. Wait For Tomorrow, 2018 Lambda digital C-prints 96 x 120 cm 28. The Revenge of 400 Years is Losing its Baby Teeth, 2018 Baby teeth and Stokie Slipper Size: 22 x 9 x 6 cm Mat size: 79 x 51 cm

Based on the Italian proverb ‘A hundred-year-old revenge still has its baby teeth’ this expression addr­ esses the mistreatment of Africans through slavery and colonialism and how at last - this issue, ignored for so long - is slowly starting to gain some traction.

It is a tradition in Zimbabwe and South Africa to put one’s baby teeth into a stokie / slipper for the Tooth Fairy as opposed to under the pillow as in most other English-speaking countries.

29.Pearls of Wisdom, 2017 Rotten wisdom teeth Lambda digital Cprints 82 x 200 cm

Dan Halter’s artistic practice is informed by his position as a Zimbabwean living in South Africa.

Using materials ubiquitous to South Africa and Zimbabwe Halter employs the language of craft and curio as a visual strategy to articulate his concerns within a fine art context. Through this, as well as through photography and video, Halter addresses notions of a dislocated national identity and the politics of post-colonial Zimbabwe within a broader African context.

Born in Zimbabwe in 1977 Dan Halter completed his BFA at the Michaelis School of Fine Art in 2001. In addition to five solo exhibitions Halter has participated in numerous group shows including Earth Matters at the Smithsonian Museum Washington DC, US at the South African National Gallery, curated by Simon Njami, Zeitgenössiche Fotokunst aus Südafrika at the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (NBK), VideoBrasil in São Paulo and the 2009 Havana Biennale. He has completed five international residencies in Zürich, Rio de Janiero, Dufftown in Scotland, Turin and Cologne.

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