#michaelrakowitz

Michael Rakowitz

Michael Rakowitz: Backstroke of the West / Available at www.draw-down.com / Designed by Gabriel Melcher. Acclaimed Iraqi-American artist #MichaelRakowitz (b. 1973) is a natural #storyteller who combines personal experiences with extensive research to create contextual, illustrated objects, installations, and interventions. Based in Chicago, the artist explores contested social, cultural, and political histories in his work, inviting viewers to consider their complicit relationship to the world around them. Rakowitz's provocative and compelling multimedia projects confront American perceptions of Iraqi culture. Whether he's teaching students how to cook Iraqi food or recreating the thousands of items destroyed or stolen during the 2003 looting of the country's National Museum in Baghdad, Rakowitz is consistently working to address the trauma created by Saddam Hussein's regime and America's war on Iraq. This lavishly illustrated catalog accompanies the artist’s first museum survey at the #MuseumofContemporaryArt #Chicago and delves into ten of the artist’s best-known works as well as one new project created for the MCA’s exhibition. Illuminating texts by Omar Kholeif, Shumon Basar, and Ella Shohat address the narrative elements and historical contexts of Rakowitz’s work. This book demonstrates art's ability to engage and confront the viewer and to generate greater understanding across cultural divides. #graphicdesign #typography #MCA (at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago) https://www.instagram.com/p/BnV-7GDh1F4/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=ol53c7g2he8j

For Passover, may we recommend 'A House with a Date Palm Will Never Starve (Cooking with Date Syrup: Forty-One Chefs and an Artist Create New and Classic Dishes with a Traditional Middle Eastern Ingredient),' edited by Michael Rakowitz and published by @art_books_⁠ ⁠ Art and food meet social activism in Rakowitz’s inspiring cookbook, in which forty-one noted international chefs, restauranteurs and food writers contribute recipes featuring the traditional Middle Eastern ingredient that also plays a key role in Rakowitz’s artwork. “Food becomes very important in exile,” Claudia Roden writes. “Families hold on to their dishes for generations, long after they have cast off their traditional clothes, dropped their native language and stopped listening to their own forms of music. Michael’s family fled Iraq for the United States in 1947 as a result of riots and reprisals against Jews. He has used cooking as a way of celebrating the family’s origin and the harmony that once reigned between Jews and Muslims.”⁠ ⁠ Chefs include: Sara Ahmad, Sam and Sam Clark (Moro, Morito), Linda Dangoor, Caroline Eden, Cameron Emirali (10 Greek Street), Eleanor Ford, Jason Hammel (Lula Café, Marisol), Stephen Harris (The Sportsman), Anissa Helou, Margot Henderson (Rochelle Canteen), Olia Hercules, Charlie Hibbert (Thyme), Anna Jones, Philip Juma (JUMA Kitchen), Reem Kassis, Asma Khan (Darjeeling Express), Florence Knight, Jeremy Lee (Quo Vadis), Prue Leith, Giorgio Locatelli, Nuno Mendes (Chiltern Firehouse), Thomasina Miers (Wahaca), Nawal Nasrallah, Russell Norman (Polpo), Yotam Ottolenghi (Ottolenghi, NOPI), Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich (Honey & Co), Michael Rakowitz, Yvonne Rakowitz, Brett Redman (Neptune, Jidori, Elliot's Café), Claudia Roden, Nasrin Rooghani, Marcus Samuelsson (Red Rooster, Aquavit), Niki Segnit, Rosie Sykes, Summer Thomas, Kitty Travers, Alice Waters (Chez Panisse) and Soli Zardosht (Zardosht).⁠ ⁠ Read more via linkinbio.⁠ ⁠ #michaelrakowitz #housewithadatepalmwillneverstarve #middleeasternrecipes #datepalm #datesyrup #cookbook #passoverrecipes https://www.instagram.com/p/CcYjcMaJys6/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

The results are in! 'Michael Rakowitz: Nimrud' @wellinmuseum is a @hyperallergic Best Show of 2021! ⁠ ⁠ We are proud to distribute the exhibition catalog, copublished by @delmonico_books ⁠ ⁠ @sephsees writes: "In several ways, Michael Rakowitz’s resuscitation of what is known as 'Room H' of the Northwest Palace of the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud (now Kalhu) is about what could not be shown because of colonialist theft, local looting, and the violent iconoclasm recently carried out by a sectarian religious order. The heritage of Iraqis exists in scattered fragments, yet Rakowitz, unbowed by these circumstances has determined — working collaboratively with a team of studio workers — to 'reappear' the famously unique palace reliefs. The artist has been working at this for at least 14 years and the show presents several of his gorgeous, reinvented faux reliefs consisting of vivid mosaics that detail clothing, jewelry, hair and skin, all made of the papier-mâché and cardboard used to package food associated with the region and Iraqi culture. And next to these reconstructions are the empty spaces where the missing reliefs once were, alluded to by large printed captions that indicate the reliefs are scattered at institutions around the world. This exhibition is a haunting and deeply beautiful act of historical recovery that refuses defeat, even as it acknowledges what it is to live a life among fragments of one’s heritage."⁠ ⁠ Images and details here are reproduced from 'Michael Rakowitz: Nimrud,' edited with text and interview by @kalcausk Introduction by @adlerarts Text by Rijin Sahakian.⁠ ⁠ Please order from your favorite independent bookstore!⁠ ⁠ More about the book via linkinbio.⁠ ⁠ #michaelrakowitz #nimrud #bestshow2021⁠ @hamiltoncollege⁠ ⁠ ⁠ https://www.instagram.com/p/CXZcoUeJLTK/?utm_medium=tumblr

If you're looking for a different way to cook—not to mention, a different way to think—for the Jewish holidays and beyond this year, check out recent Nasher-prize-winning Jewish-Iraqi artist Michael Rakowitz's 'A House with a Date Palm Will Never Starve,' a legit cookbook and a philosophical challenge collecting recipes by 41 international chefs, restauranteurs and food writers centered around one often-overlooked but politically pivotal ingredient: the humble date. A staple in Iraq, where Rakowitz's family emigrated from, as well as a focal point in Rakowitz's critically-acclaimed artwork, date syrup also happens to be a favorite ingredient of chefs like Yotam Ottolenghi, Marcus Samuelsson, Alice Waters and Claudia Roden, who all contribute killer recipes. ⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ Have a sweet new year! Published by @art_books_⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ @nashermuseum #datepalm #roshhashonah #sweetnewyear #michaelrakowitz #roshhashonahrecipes #datesyrup #datepalmrecipes #cookbook https://www.instagram.com/p/CThckV3sA48/?utm_medium=tumblr

Shatha Alimara Najib

Michael Rakowitz, paraSITE 1998-ongoing Plastic bags, polyethylene tubing, hooks, tape Different urban sites in New York City, Boston and Cambridge MA, and Baltimore MD Exhibited at MoMA (2005), MassMOCA (2004), and elsewhere Custom built inflatable shelters designed for homeless people that attach to the exterior outtake vents of a building’s Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system. The warm air leaving the building simultaneously inflates and heats the double membrane structure. Built and distributed to over 30 homeless people in Boston and Cambridge, MA and New York City. "Joe H. using his paraSITE shelter in February 2000. Joe is a homeless man who lived on the streets near Battery Park City in Manhattan. In the 1970s, he became a contractor and was responsible for building over fifteen buildings in Brooklyn. He was diagnosed with cancer in the 1980s after being exposed to Agent Orange while serving in the Air Force in Vietnam. After forty-seven different operations to treat the cancer, the Veteran’s Association of America ceased paying his medical bills and he went bankrupt." http://www.michaelrakowitz.com/parasite #michaelrakowitz #shelter #homelessness #quarantine https://www.instagram.com/p/B-QZeGkJFqY/?igshid=1uh5lngs2q1y6

Chef Nawal Nasrallah