24
May
2018
SITElab 10: Michael Rakowitz Opening
May 24, 2018 At SITE Santa Fe
Join us for the FREE Public Opening on May 24, from 5-7 pm with a Members-only lounge.
SITE Santa Fe presents a solo exhibition of Chicago-based, Iraqi-American artist Michael Rakowitz. In his work, Iraqi-American Michael Rakowitz attempts to undo the cultural erasure of Iraq. In works like The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist, he recreates some of the many antiquities that have been destroyed, looted, and removed from Iraq’s museums and ancient sites over centuries. To create his reconstructions, Rakowitz uses papier-mâché, Arabic newspapers, and the packaging of Middle Eastern foodstuffs to make to-scale replicas of these lost or threatened objects.
In his work, Michael Rakowitz attempts to undo the cultural erasure of Iraq and recreate antiquities that have been destroyed, looted, and removed from Iraq’s museums and ancient sites. Through Rakowitz’s works in sculpture, drawing, and video, lost or stolen objects of significant cultural patrimony are given new life for new audiences in a new era.