Dan Halter’s artistic production is informed by his position as a Zimbabwean living in South Africa. Halter uses materials that are abundant in Zimbabwe and South Africa in the form of craft and curio as a visual strategy to raise his trepidations[1]. In his artist statement, Halter confirms that he deals with the issue of dislocated national identity and the dark humour of present realities in Southern Africa, largely a backlash to a history of oppression that continues today[2].

This artwork belongs to Dan Halter’s series entitled The Original is Unfaithful to the Translation. In this series, Halter uses handwoven examples of official documents to explore just how the fabrication itself becomes the (false) source of understanding[3]. Halters investigation into this idea has three points of focus; the vestiges of the colonial experience, the resulting implications of exile and our (in)ability to interpret this experience through the documents and Internet resources[3].