Objects made from middle eastern packaging and newspapers, display table
121.9 x 45.7 x 243.8 （厘米）
48.0 x 18.0 x 96.0 （吋）
Iraqi-American conceptual artist MICHAEL RAKOWITZ (b. 1973, Great Neck, NY) operates within art spaces and beyond, creating projects that often expose and challenge U.S. – Middle Eastern cultural and political relations. "The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist" unfolds as an intricate narrative about artifacts stolen from the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad during the aftermath of the US invasion in April 2003. The current status of their whereabouts, the series of events surrounding the invasion, the plundering, and related protagonists all figure into the story told in this work. At Art Basel Miami, Rhona Hoffman Gallery will present sculptures from the ongoing series, in which Rakowitz reconstructs looted archaeological artifacts using Middle-eastern food packaging and newspapers.
Rakowitz's other projects include: 'Return,' a 2004 Creative Time commission in which the artist reopened his grandfather’s import/export business, Davison’s & Co., and offered free shipping to Iraq three months after the U.S. declared stifling trade restrictions on the country; 'Every Weapon is a Tool if You Hold it Right,' which brings together Iraq War veterans and Iraqi refugees to prepare the traditional Mesopotamian carp dish "masghouf"; and his most recent project 'The Flesh is Yours, the Bones are Ours,' commissioned for the 2015 Istanbul Biennial.
