Title
The invisible enemy should not exist (cylinder seals)
2022
Artist
-
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
- Share
-
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