Iraqi artist celebrates heritage with giant artwork that took a year to complete

An Iraqi artist celebrated his culture and history by recreating a mythical beast in a whopping piece of art that took him a whole year to complete.

Self-taught artist, Ali AlRawi, created a vivid work depicting the ancient Assyrian winged bull by wrapping copper wires around nails attached to wooden boards to create the largest wire art, measured at 203.76 m² (2193 ft² 36 in²).

The Assyrian winged bull, aka “The Lamassu”, is a mythological hybrid composed of the head of a human, the body of a bull, and the wings of a bird.

The ancient Assyrian Empire has left a legacy of great cultural significance, much of which has since been lost but once marked the centre of a great empire in the ancient Mesopotamia, which is now known as Iraq and north-eastern Syria.

This giant artwork extends over the space of approximately 15 car parking spaces, and it took a whole year to complete. Around 89,000 nails and 250 kilograms (551 lb) of pure copper formed into wires of 35,714 meters (117,171.9 ft) were used on the surface of 18 wooden planks.

Ali works as a physician assistant in the city of Ramadi in the Iraqi province of Anbar. His artistic talent grew from scribbling on a school bench to now creating epic pieces of art with wires. He was inspired to give it a go after seeing a German artist using that technique in 2016.

After a long search online, he couldn't find anything to teach him how to do it, so he practised and practised until he nailed the technique on his own.

Ali said: "I drew a sail at the beginning. But after that, it took me a lot of experimenting to select the usable materials. I decided on copper wires and 1-inch nails with small heads so as not to affect the shape of the work, to make sure the monuments insulate heat, moisture and scratching, as wood is also coated with three materials to serve this purpose.”

He worked hard over the course of a year and had to cover the board's entire dimensions with wires of different colour to meet the stringent requirements of breaking the world record. He also, on several occasions, moved the entire artwork to several different locations in Iraq to carry out the final measurements and filming.

“This is the biggest achievement of my life. This work was fraught with many conflicting feelings, and I remember very well how the pressures of life besieged me during its completion, to the point that I worked while crying sometimes,” said Ali.

“The moment I learned about the result was very moving, I travelled from faraway to reach my family and tell them the news in person. The Guinness World Records title crowned years of training and perseverance, and I am very grateful,” added Ali.

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