The following is an edited transcript of our conversation.Įrin Thompson: How did you come to be interested in monuments? When I heard Rakowitz had read it while preparing his project, I asked him to speak with me. Once again, Rakowitz and I are navigating similar ground-in different yet complimentary ways: I have just published a book on these topics, Smashing Statues: The Rise and Fall of American Monuments. The work analyzes the role public monuments have played in the formation of American society, while also asking questions about how they-and America-might change. Rakowitz’s latest project, The Monument, the Monster, and the Maquette, is now on display at the Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago. Rakowitz’s subsequent works have ranged from a re-creation of an ancient lamassu destroyed by ISIL at the site of Nineveh for a Fourth Plinth commission to exporting the famously delicious dates of Iraq to Brooklyn to explore the effects both of punitive international sanctions and the expulsion of Rakowitz’s grandfather, alongside many other Iraqi Jews, from the country in 1947. How did the conflict between Iraqis and foreign collectors over ownership reflect both larger historical violence and more intimate uncertainties about identity? They prompted me to think about what was important about the original antiquities.
The resulting sculptures were colorful, charming, and powerful. While I had been working on understanding the legal regulations governing the repatriation of cultural heritage, Rakowitz had been using Arabic-language newspapers and food packaging to replicate artifacts stolen from the National Museum of Iraq. I’ve followed the work of Iraqi-American artist Michael Rakowitz since I saw pieces from his ongoing project The invisible enemy should not exist mixed with antiquities in an exhibition in the gallery of New York University’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World. Thompson, Smashing Statues: The Rise and Fall of American Monuments (W. (Artwork © Michael Rakowitz photograph provided by Rhona Hoffman Gallery). Michael Rakowitz, American Golem, 2022, mixed media including repurposed sculpture, dimensions variable.
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