Fourth plinth 2018

Michael Rakowitz’s new work The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist was unveiled on the Fourth Plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square today, Wednesday 28 March, by the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan.

The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist is a project that Rakowitz started in 2006. It attempts to recreate more than 7,000 objects looted from the Iraq Museum in 2003 or destroyed at archaeological sites across the country in the aftermath of the war. For the Fourth Plinth Rakowitz has recreated the Lamassu, a winged bull and protective deity that stood at the entrance to Nergal Gate of Nineveh (near modern day Mosul) from c 700 B.C, until it was destroyed by ISIS in 2015. It will be the 12th work to appear on the Fourth Plinth since the commissioning programme began in 1998, and will be on the plinth until March 2020.

The reconstructions in The Invisible Enemy are made from recycled food packaging, similar to the reliefs at the base of Nelson’s Column being made from canons salvaged from the wreck of HMS Royal George. The Lamassu is made of 10,500 empty Iraqi date syrup cans, representative of a once-renowned industry decimated by the Iraq Wars.