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Winged bull made of syrup cans unveiled on fourth plinth Winged bull made of syrup cans unveiled on fourth plinth
(about 2 hours later)
A recreation of a protective deity destroyed by Islamic State in Iraq has been unveiled on Trafalgar Square’s fourth plinth – rebuilt with date cans. A recreation of a protective deity destroyed by Islamic State in Iraq has been unveiled on Trafalgar Square’s fourth plinth – rebuilt with 10,500 empty date syrup cans.
The sculpture, titled The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist, is the work of Michael Rakowitz. As the black drapery fell away to reveal what artist Michael Rakowitz has described as “a palimpsest of loss” for the people of Iraq, their cultural history, and a once great export industry, tears filled the eyes of a woman from Nineveh.
Lamassu, a winged bull that guarded the entrance to the Nergal Gate of Nineveh from 700BC, has been remade out of empty date syrup cans from Iraq. “It’s so beautiful, but it hurts me in my heart to see it here,” Margaret Nadir Aziz said, looking up at the sculpture of the winged bull, a guardian spirit that protected the gates of the Assyrian city of Nineveh for almost 3,000 years until it was smashed to rubble by Isis in February 2015 – its destruction recorded on video for propaganda purposes.
The deity was destroyed, along with other artefacts in the Mosul Museum, by Isis in 2015. Aziz remembers the great ruins of the city from her childhood at Nineveh, near the modern city of Mosul, but she left Iraq in 1976 with her family and now lives and works in Chicago. She came to London to join her brother-in-law Odisho Odisho, an agricultural engineer who left Baghdad in 1995, and niece Diana Odisho, who now lives in London, when she heard about the unveiling of Rakowitz’s sculpture.
Rakowitz, an American artist, said: “This work is unveiled in Trafalgar Square at a time when we are witnessing a massive migration of people fleeing Iraq and Syria. I see this work as a ghost of the original and as a placeholder for those human lives that cannot be reconstructed, that are still searching for sanctuary.” “Here is my country, for real here in the middle of this city, for so many people to see – wonderful, but I have tears also,” she said.
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “Michael’s work shows the power of art to bring to life politics, cultures and personal stories from around the world and across generations.” The fourth plinth, which due to 19th century austerity measures never got the planned equestrian statue of some royal or military figure, has instead become the capital’s most prominent site for temporary installations of contemporary art, occupied in the past by works by Antony Gormley, Mark Wallinger and Yinka Shonibare.
The sculpture is the 12th to adorn Trafalgar Square’s fourth plinth. Mayor Sadiq Khan described the sculpture’s place on the fourth plinth, where it is estimated at least 20 million people will see it over the next two years, making it “probably the world’s most high profile piece of art”, as an act of resilience against tyranny and religious fanaticism, and a celebration of pluralism.
The artist’s own family left Iraq in 1946, fearing for their safety as Arab Jews, and moved to the United States where he was born. The Lamassu, originally carved from a single gigantic block of limestone whose footprint was exactly that of the fourth plinth, is only part of his epic art project, The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist, to recreate all the objects looted from the museum in Baghdad or destroyed on archaeological sites across the country.
Rakowitz has never set foot in Iraq himself, but hopes one day it may be possible: “I have worked with so many Iraqi refugees, and they have said to me when they can return to their country, they will invite me to visit.”
He chose to recreate the winged bull full size, but made from flattened date tins to mourn not just the sculpture’s destruction but the loss of the country’s major export trade in dates and date syrup, regarded as the best in the world.
The date industry was second only to the oil trade, but only an estimated 10% remain of the 30m date trees that flourished before the Iraq war.
In parts of Iraq, he said, it was still traditional to place a date into the mouth of a new born, “so that their first taste of life is sweet, a harbinger of good to come”.
His sculpture came with a one-day pop up shop offering samples of traditional Iraqi date treats, including his mother’s version of quemar, which resembles clotted cream, and her recipe that involves a quart of double cream, a quart of buffalo milk, a pillow case and a blanket.
“Here’s to a sweeter future,” he said.
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