Museum Exhibition Catalogues, Monographs, Artist's Projects, Curatorial Writings and Essays
Michael Rakowitz was born in 1973 in Great Neck, New York. In January of 2010, Tate Modern mounted The worst condition is to pass under a sword which is not one's own, a solo project linking western science fiction and military-industrial activities in Iraq during and after Saddam Hussein's regime. His work has appeared in exhibitions at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, the Queens Museum of Art, the Storefront for Art and Architecture, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, White Columns Gallery and the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York and the Fabric Workshop in Philadelphia; the Contemporary Art Center in Vilnius, Lithuania; and ACC Galerie in Weimar, Germany, among many others. He is a professor of art theory and practice at Northwestern University in Chicago, where he lives and works.
Cooking with Date Syrup: Forty-One Chefs and an Artist Create New and Classic Dishes with a Traditional Middle Eastern Ingredient
Published by Art / Books. By Michael Rakowitz. Foreword by Claudia Roden. Text by Ella Shohat. Recipes by Yotam Ottolenghi, et al.
With recipes by 41 popular chefs and food writers such as Alice Waters, Yotam Ottolenghi and Marcus Samuelsson, this cookbook focuses on the many uses of date syrup
Date syrup has been central to Iraqi cooking and home life for centuries. In this unique book, a fusion of contemporary art and food, Chicago-based Iraqi-American artist Michael Rakowitz (born 1973) and 41 celebrated chefs present delicious dishes using this staple of Middle Eastern cuisine.
In early 2018, Rakowitz unveiled a winged bull sculpture on the Fourth Plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square, a life-size replica of a Mesopotamian lammasu made from thousands of date syrup cans. The artist’s choice of material was laden with historical significance: for decades, until the industry was decimated by war and disease, dates had been Iraq’s second biggest export after oil.
As his winged bull sat upon the Fourth Plinth, Rakowitz invited chefs from around the world to create new and classic recipes using date syrup. Chefs and food writers including Yotam Ottolenghi, Alice Waters, Claudia Roden, Reem Kassis, Prue Leith, Jason Hammel, Nuno Mendes, Thomasina Miers, Giorgio Locatelli and Marcus Samuelsson answered Rakowitz’s call, creating dozens of sweet and savory dishes with date syrup, now collected in this cookbook.
Easy step-by-step instructions and gorgeous photographs enable the reader to make these recipes at home. Ranging from the traditional to the innovative, with everything from simple brunch dishes, salads and sides to mouthwatering mains, cakes, desserts, drinks and condiments represented, the recipes in this volume showcase the richness of a humble ingredient. This special book will appeal to anyone who loves the cuisine of the Middle East and is interested in the politics of food in that troubled region.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).
Published by SBC galerie d'art contemporain. Text 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.
PUBLISHER SBC galerie d'art contemporain
BOOK FORMAT Paperback, 6 x 9.25 in. / 96 pgs / 13 color / 26 bw.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 2/28/2010 Out of print
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: SPRING 2010 p. 60
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9782981046543TRADE List Price: $25.00 CDN $30.00
Published by Onestar Press. Interview by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev. Afterword by Giuliana Carusi Setari.
To circumvent is to get around the rules, to find loopholes, to initiate idiosyncratic solutions, to employ subtle metaphor to highlight problematic situations. Michael Rakowitz does just that, combining architecture, design, agitational techniques and a poetic sensibility to create installations and performances that touch on issues of power, visibility and memory. His paraSITe shelters are custom-built tents for homeless people that attach to the hot exhaust vents of buildings, creating not only a heated abode but one much more visible than a cardboard box. Rise conducts the smell of Chinese pastries from a Chinatown bakery to the decidedly un-local art exhibition in an adjacent building. And in Minaret, Rakowitz uses an alarm clock bought in Jordan to broadcast the adhan, the Muslim call to prayer, to a city where minarets are otherwise quieted.
PUBLISHER Onestar Press
BOOK FORMAT Paperback, 5.5 x 8.75 in. / 156 pgs / 80 bw.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 3/2/2004 Out of print
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: SPRING 2004
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9782915359046TRADE List Price: $19.95 CDN $25.00
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Michael Rakowitz: Recent Projects on Baghdad and Montreal
Michael Rakowitz: Circumventions
