Michael Rakowitz: Recent Projects on Baghdad and Montreal

by Stephanie Smith, Jean Gagnon, Nicola Setari

An inspiring blend of sculpture, politics and gesture, the art of Michael Rakowitz (born 1973) makes a direct engagement with the larger dilemmas of the present, with ecological solutions and civic interventions. These include projects such as paraSITE , a series of inflatable plastic homeless shelters, each of which was tailored to the occupant's needs, and which was designed to inflate by latching on to heat-exhaust ducts on the sides of buildings. In The invisible enemy should not exist -his most famous project to date-Rakowitz faithfully replicated the objects known to be missing or looted from the Iraqi National Museum during the U.S. invasion, using the cheap paper packaging of Middle Eastern import foods. This handsome volume surveys these and other recent projects.

96 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 2010