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Title

The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals)

2022

Artist

Michael Rakowitz

United States of America

1973 –

No image

  • Details

    Place where the work was made
    United States of America
    Date
    2022
    Media categories
    Sculpture , Installation
    Materials used
    Arabic newspaper and food packaging cardboard sculptures, museum labels
    Dimensions
    display dimensions variable :

    1.1 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 2.2 x 6.2 x 0.7 cm

    1.2 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 1.6 x 2.4 cm, diam.

    2.1 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 2.2 x 7.9 cm

    2.2 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 1.8 x 23 cm, (illeg.)

    3.1 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 2.9 x 7.7 x 0.8 cm

    3.2 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 2.6 x 1.5 cm, diam.

    4.1 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 3.3 x 2.7 x 0.7 cm

    4.2 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 2.4 x 1 cm, diam.

    5.1 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 2.7 x 6.1 x 0.8 cm

    5.2 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 2.5 x 2 cm, diam.

    6.1 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 3.1 x 4.3 x 0.8 cm

    6.2 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 2.9 x 1.1 cm, diam.

    7.1 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 2.8 x 5.1 x 1 cm

    7.2 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 2.6 x 2 cm, diam.

    8.1 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 2.4 x 7.7 x 0.9 cm

    8.2 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 2.2 x 1.1 cm, diam.

    9.1 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 11.2 x 0.9 cm

    9.2 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 2.4 x 1.7 cm, diam.

    10.1 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 3.6 x 11.5 x 0.9 cm

    10.2 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 3.2 x 2 cm, diam.

    11.1 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 3.7 x 14.7 x 1.2 cm

    11.2 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 3.6 x 2.5 cm, diam.

    12.1 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 3.5 x 5.9 x 1 cm

    12.2 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 3.4 x 1.7 cm, diam.

    13.1 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 2.8 x 8.3 x 1.2 cm

    13.2 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 2.3 x 2.3 cm, diam.

    14.1 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 1.8 x 3.5 x 0.8 cm

    14.2 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 1.7 x 1.2 cm, diam.

    15.1 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 4.2 x 4.3 x 1 cm

    15.2 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 3.8 x 1.3 cm, diam.

    16.1 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 3.4 x 4.1 x 0.7 cm

    16.2 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 3.3 x 1.3 cm, diam.

    17.1 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 3.1 x 8.6 x 1.3 cm

    17.2 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 3 x 2.8 cm, diam.

    18.1 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 3.5 x 11 x 1.4 cm

    18.2 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 3.4 x 2.3 cm, diam.

    19.1 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 2.5 x 3.5 x 0.6 cm

    19.2 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 2.2 x 1.5 cm, diam.

    20.1 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 5.2 x 7.6 x 0.8 cm

    20.2 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 5.2 x 1.3 cm, diam.

    21.1 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 3.5 x 5.2 x 1.1 cm

    21.2 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 3.4 x 1.9 cm, diam.

    22.1 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 2.9 x 8.2 x 0.8 cm

    22.2 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 2.5 x 2.2 cm, diam.

    23.1 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 3.9 x 6.9 x 1 cm

    23.2 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 3.2 x 2.3 cm, diam.

    24.1 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 2.8 x 5.4 x 0.7 cm

    24.2 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 2.6 x 1.7 cm, diam.

    25.1 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 2.4 x 4 x 0.7 cm

    25.2 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 2 x 1.5 cm, diam.

    26.1 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 3.3 x 6.2 x 0.8 cm

    26.2 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 2.7 x 1.7 cm, diam.

    27.1 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 4.7 x 6.1 x cm

    27.2 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 4.5 x 1.5 cm, diam.

    28.1 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 5.7 x 7.3 x 0.9 cm

    28.2 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 5 x 1.3 cm, diam.

    29.1 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 2.9 x 7.1 x 0.9 cm

    29.2 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 2.6 x 1.1 cm, diam.

    30.1 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 2.7 x 6.7 x 0.9 cm

    30.2 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 2.4 x 2 cm, diam.

    31.1 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 2.9 x 7 x 1 cm

    31.2 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 2.6 x 1.7 cm, diam.

    32.1 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 2.8 x 3.8 x 0.7 cm

    32.2 - The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals), 2.4 x 1.3 cm, diam.

    Credit
    Purchased with funds provided by the David George Wilson Bequest for Asian Art and the Mervyn Horton Bequest 2023
    Location
    Not on display
    Accession number
    18.2023.1-32
    Copyright
    © Michael Rakowitz
    Artist information
    Michael Rakowitz

    Works in the collection

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  • About

    Born in Great Neck, New York, Michael Rakowitz is an American artist of Iraqi-Jewish heritage. His artworks typically evolve from extensive research around culturally significant places, events and objects. Conflicts and interactions between the West and the Middle East are recurring points of reference but his artworks also reflect more broadly on the processes of colonization (contemporary and historical) as well as on the value of cultural artifacts that become lost or destroyed by different means.

    Using a museum database of images and information, Rakowitz recreates scale reproductions of missing artifacts using a papier-maché compound made from Arabic-English newspapers and West Asian food packaging that he finds in diasporic grocery stores in Chicago. The title of the project, The invisible enemy should not exist, is a translation of ‘Aj ibur shapu’, the name of the Processional Way that ran through Nebuchadnezzar’s Ishtar Gate in Babylon.

    The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals) 2022 comprises 64 intimate sculptures, organised into 32 pairs and accompanied by texts. The work reproduces looted stone seals, several of which date to the 1st and 2nd Millennia BCE. The original cylindrical seals were designed to be rolled on wet clay so as to leave an impression. They are linked to the invention of cuneiform writing and were used as signatures, worn around the neck as jewellery, and served as amulets. Before the US-led invasion in 2003, the National Museum of Iraq’s collection of seals numbered more than 15,000.

    In Rakowitz’s work, each of the 32 recreated seals is accompanied by the form of its clay impression and by a text that provides details of the original object: its physical properties, provenance and current status (missing, feared stolen, retrieved or unknown). The texts also include quotations from scholars that provide context to the objects’ historical and cultural importance.

  • Places

    Where the work was made

    United States of America