Palimpsest, a summer group exhibition presenting work by Michael Rakowitz (SMVisS ’98) and others, is on view at Mariane Ibrahim Gallery in Chicago through August 24, 2024. Palimpsest sparks dialogue between hegemonic and emergent histories, private and public iconographies, mythologies, and fantasies.
Present in various text-based cultures since antiquity, the notion of the palimpsest has fascinated conservators, historians, and artists throughout modern history. A palimpsest is a manuscript support that has been reused by washing off or scraping the original text, creating layers of latent content that are partially visible, varying greatly in theme and time of creation.
Works by Michael Rakowitz from his series The invisible enemy should not exist (2024), focus on the looting of the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad, that occurred in the wake of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. The artist percolates from themes of community and individuality to those of empire and nation by using material rooted in Iraqi visibility to reproduce invaluable archaeological artifacts. Complementing Rakowitz’s didacticism, McArthur Binion’s Handmadeness: four (2024) provokes an archaeological observation of his dimensional gestures that build a dense narrative collage on the pictorial plane. The sobering dose of raw umber and white compels viewers into a closer gaze that reveals archival material and painterly structures that undergird its surface.
Other artists in the exhibition are: ruby onyinyechi amanze, McArthur Binion, Bethany Collins, Carmen Neely, Zohra Opoku, and Edra Soto.
Learn more about the exhibition.
