Bowl, Billah Ware, from the series The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist

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© Michael Rakowitz. Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton Colle…
Bowl, Billah Ware, from the series The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist
© Michael Rakowitz. Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY. Photo by John Bentham.
Artist/Maker (Iraqi-American, born 1973)
Date2020
MediumMiddle Eastern food packaging, Arabic-language U.S. newspapers, and glue, with accompanying didactic information
DimensionsOverall: 3 3/4 × 6 5/8 × 6 5/8 in. (9.5 × 16.8 × 16.8 cm)
Credit LinePurchase, William G. Roehrick '34 Art Acquisition and Preservation Fund
Object number2021.5.9
On view
DescriptionInventory number: Unknown Excavation number: Unknown Provenance: Nineveh Dimension(s): Height approx. 9 cm Material: Baked clay Date: Early Dynastic I (ca. 2800 bce) Description: Fragment of bowl with monochrome painting and geometric designs (Billah ware); foot broken Status: Unknown Let me say one other thing. The images you are seeing on television you are seeing over, and over, and over, and it’s the same picture of some person walking out of some building with a vase, and you see it 20 times, and you think, “My goodness, were there that many vases?” [Laughter.] “Is it possible that there were that many vases in the whole country?” —Donald Rumsfeld

Additional Details

Exhibition History 2021
Clinton, NY (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College). MICHAEL RAKOWITZ: NIMRUD, October 19, 2020 - June 18, 2021.
Provenance 2021: Hamilton College (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art), by purchase from Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago.
© Michael Rakowitz. Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton Colle…
Michael Rakowitz
Date: 2020
Medium: Middle Eastern food packaging, Arabic-language U.S. newspapers, and glue, with accompanying didactic information
Object number: 2021.5.8
© Michael Rakowitz. Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton Colle…
Michael Rakowitz
Date: 2020
Medium: Middle Eastern food packaging, Arabic-language U.S. newspapers, and glue, with accompanying didactic information
Object number: 2021.5.5
© Michael Rakowitz. Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton Colle…
Michael Rakowitz
Date: 2020
Medium: Middle Eastern food packaging, Arabic-language U.S. newspapers, and glue, with accompanying didactic information
Object number: 2021.5.10
© Michael Rakowitz. Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton Colle…
Michael Rakowitz
Date: 2020
Medium: Middle Eastern food packaging, Arabic-language U.S. newspapers, and glue, on panel, with accompanying didactic information
Object number: 2021.5.1
© Michael Rakowitz. Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton Colle…
Michael Rakowitz
Date: 2020
Medium: Middle Eastern food packaging, Arabic-language U.S. newspapers, and glue, with accompanying didactic information
Object number: 2021.5.7
© Michael Rakowitz. Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton Colle…
Michael Rakowitz
Date: 2020
Medium: Middle Eastern food packaging, Arabic-language U.S. newspapers, and glue, with accompanying didactic information
Object number: 2021.5.4
© Michael Rakowitz. Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton Colle…
Michael Rakowitz
Date: 2020
Medium: Middle Eastern food packaging, Arabic-language U.S. newspapers, and glue, with accompanying didactic information
Object number: 2021.5.11
© Michael Rakowitz. Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton Colle…
Michael Rakowitz
Date: 2020
Medium: Middle Eastern food packaging, Arabic-language U.S. newspapers, and glue, with accompanying didactic information
Object number: 2021.5.3
© Michael Rakowitz. Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton Colle…
Michael Rakowitz
Date: 2020
Medium: Middle Eastern food packaging, Arabic-language U.S. newspapers, and glue, with accompanying didactic information
Object number: 2021.5.6
Pitcher
Unknown artist, Roman (Ancient)
Date: c. 4th century CE
Medium: Blown glass with trailing
Object number: 1929.107
Perfume flask
Unknown artist, Roman (Ancient)
Date: c. 4th-5th century CE
Medium: Blown glass with trailing
Object number: 1929.116
Pitcher
Date: c. 4th-5th century CE
Medium: Blown glass with trailing
Object number: 1929.102