Michael Rakowitz
Backstroke Of The West
16 Sep 2017 - 04 Mar 2018
Michael Rakowitz, Enemies and Kitchens, 2012. Mixed media installation; overall dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist, Lombard Freid Projects, the Smart Museum of Art, and Rhona Hoffman Gallery Photo: Michael Tropea, courtesy of the Smart Museum of Art and Rhona Hoffman Gallery.
Michael Rakowitz, What Dust Will Rise?, 2012. Bamiyan travertine, glass, vitrines, bullets, shrapnel, meteorites, Libyan desert glass, trinitite, fragments of the destroyed Buddhas of Bamiyan, and books burned during the WWII. Commissioned and produced for Documenta 13 in Kassel, Germany, and Kabul, Afghanistan, with the support of the Dena Foundation for Contemporary Art, Paris, and Lombard Fried Projects, New York Photo © Rosa Maria Ruehling, courtesy of the artist and Rhona Hoffman Gallery.
Michael Rakowitz, May the Arrogant Not Prevail, 2010. Found Arabic packaging and newspapers, glue, cardboard, and wood; 235 1⁄4 x 194 1⁄4 x 37 1⁄2 in. (597.5 x 493.4 x 95.3 cm). Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, gift of Marshall Field’s by exchange, 2015.4 Image courtesy of the artist and Rhona Hoffman Gallery.
Michael Rakowitz, What Dust Will Rise?, 2012. Bamiyan travertine, glass, vitrines, bullets, shrapnel, meteorites, Libyan desert glass, trinitite, fragments of the destroyed Buddhas of Bamiyan, and books burned during the WWII. Commissioned and produced for Documenta 13 in Kassel, Germany, and Kabul, Afghanistan, with the support of the Dena Foundation for Contemporary Art, Paris, and Lombard Fried Projects, New York Photo: Roman März, courtesy of the artist and Rhona Hoffman Gallery.
Michael Rakowitz, Bearded Male with Long Hair, Missing Eye (Kh. VIII 269) (Recovered, Missing, Stolen Series), 2009. From the series The Invisible enemy should not exist, 2007–present. Middle Eastern packaging and newspapers and glue; 15 7/10 x 4 7/10 x 1 3/5 in. (40 x 12 x 4 cm). Courtesy of Galerie Barbara Wien, Berlin, and Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago Photo: Nick Ash.
MICHAEL RAKOWITZ
Backstroke Of The West
16 September 2017– 4 March 2018
Based in Chicago, Iraqi-American artist Michael Rakowitz (b. 1973) makes work that explores recent contested social, political, and cultural histories. Drawing on personal experiences and research on these subjects, as well as history and popular culture, Rakowitz creates illustrated objects, installations, and performances that invite viewers to contemplate their complicit relationship to the political world around them, recognizing that hospitality and hostility are interlinked.
The artist’s first US museum survey features early works, a new commission, and major installations, such as Enemy Kitchen (2003–ongoing), a pop-up food truck that serves Iraqi dishes made from recipes that Rakowitz and his mother collected through workshops and extensive community liaisons. Also on view are Spoils (2011), a project that saw the artist serve Iraqi date syrup and venison on Saddam Hussein’s very own china, and The invisible enemy should not exist (2007–ongoing), a lifelong project to fabricate at full scale every single item looted from the Iraqi National Museum. The exhibition also includes a portion of Rakowitz’s commission for Documenta 13, What Dust Will Rise? (2012), for which he worked with stone carvers to re-create items from the State Library of Hesse-Kassel that were lost in the 1941 fire of the Fridericianum, using stone quarried from the ruins of sixth-century sandstone Buddhas destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.
The title of the exhibition, Backstroke of the West, is a mistranslation of Revenge of the Sith, which was used for a Chinese bootleg version of the film and likely gleaned from a program such as Google Translate. The title speaks to Rakowitz's interest in translation as a means of traversing social and political boundaries as well as how popular culture can be used to access shared cultural narratives.
Collectively, this exhibition tells a story of restitution and reconstitution and positions Rakowitz as one of the most important artists of our time.
The exhibition is organized by Omar Kholeif, Manilow Senior Curator and Director of Global Initiatives at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. It is presented in the Bergman Family Gallery on the museum’s second floor.
Backstroke Of The West
16 September 2017– 4 March 2018
Based in Chicago, Iraqi-American artist Michael Rakowitz (b. 1973) makes work that explores recent contested social, political, and cultural histories. Drawing on personal experiences and research on these subjects, as well as history and popular culture, Rakowitz creates illustrated objects, installations, and performances that invite viewers to contemplate their complicit relationship to the political world around them, recognizing that hospitality and hostility are interlinked.
The artist’s first US museum survey features early works, a new commission, and major installations, such as Enemy Kitchen (2003–ongoing), a pop-up food truck that serves Iraqi dishes made from recipes that Rakowitz and his mother collected through workshops and extensive community liaisons. Also on view are Spoils (2011), a project that saw the artist serve Iraqi date syrup and venison on Saddam Hussein’s very own china, and The invisible enemy should not exist (2007–ongoing), a lifelong project to fabricate at full scale every single item looted from the Iraqi National Museum. The exhibition also includes a portion of Rakowitz’s commission for Documenta 13, What Dust Will Rise? (2012), for which he worked with stone carvers to re-create items from the State Library of Hesse-Kassel that were lost in the 1941 fire of the Fridericianum, using stone quarried from the ruins of sixth-century sandstone Buddhas destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.
The title of the exhibition, Backstroke of the West, is a mistranslation of Revenge of the Sith, which was used for a Chinese bootleg version of the film and likely gleaned from a program such as Google Translate. The title speaks to Rakowitz's interest in translation as a means of traversing social and political boundaries as well as how popular culture can be used to access shared cultural narratives.
Collectively, this exhibition tells a story of restitution and reconstitution and positions Rakowitz as one of the most important artists of our time.
The exhibition is organized by Omar Kholeif, Manilow Senior Curator and Director of Global Initiatives at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. It is presented in the Bergman Family Gallery on the museum’s second floor.