Michael Rakowitz
Subtitle: Nimrud
By: edited by Katherine D. Alcauskas
Contributors: Alcauskas, Katherine D., editor; Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art
Publisher: Delmonico Books
Published: 2021
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 141
ISBN-13: 9781636810256
Copyright date: 2021
Subjects: Bas-relief; Northwest Palace (Calah)
Description: Using Arab-language newspapers and wrappers from food products imported from the Middle East, Iraqi American artist Michael Rakowitz (born 1973) has recreated to scale Room H from the Northwest Palace of the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud (Kalhu). Part of a reception suite, Room H was originally lined with seven-foot-tall carved stone reliefs, including an inscription detailing Ashurnasirpal II's achievements and winged male figures, many of which have been removed by Western archaeologists over the last 150 years. Here, Rakowitz has recreated only those panels that were in situ in Room H when the remains of the palace were destroyed by the jihadist group the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2015. Areas from which the reliefs had already been removed by 19th-century archaeologists are left blank, resulting in what Rakowitz calls a palimpsest of different moments of removal.
Notes: "This book is published in conjunction with the exhibition Michael Rakowitz: Nimrud, organized by the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY, October 19, 2020-June 18, 2021"-- Colophon.