DIANA AL-HADID: PHANTOM LIMB

DIANA AL-HADID: PHANTOM LIMB

DIANA AL-HADID: PHANTOM LIMB

Edited by Maya Allison

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This publication accompanies the exhibition Diana Al-Hadid: First published in Italy in 2016 by The Art Gallery at NYU Abu Dhabi wishes to thank NYU Abu We thank our gallery’s Advisory Council: H.E. Zaki Nusseibeh,

Phantom Limb at the Art Gallery of New York University Abu Skira Editore S.p.A. Dhabi for the multi-faceted support of this publication, as Hilary Ballon, Munira Al Sayegh, Reindert Falkenburg, Kerry

Dhabi, curated by Maya Allison, on view from March 5 to May Palazzo Casati Stampa well as that of our collaborator David Winton Bell Gallery at Barrett, Tarek Al-Ghoussain, Salwa Mikdadi, Sunil Kumar. For

28 of 2016 in Abu Dhabi, UAE. via Torino 61 Brown University, and its director Jo-Ann Conklin. We thank its various kinds of support for this project at crucial points,

20123 Milano Secession Gallery in Vienna and Marianne Boesky Gallery thank you to the NYUAD Art Gallery team, past and present:

The first iteration of this exhibition was organized by Italy in New York and Moran Bondaroff gallery in Los Angeles for Laura Latman, Samuel Faix, Bana Kattan, Alaa Edris, Amanda

Secession Gallery in Vienna, entitled The Fates for which a www.skira.net their collaborative support as well. Smith, Sara Lizzul, Zoe Kwa, Dinara Mukhayarova.

book of the artist’s preparatory drawings for Phantom Limb

was published. © 2016 NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery, PO Box 129188, Thank you to the essayists, Reindert Falkenburg, Alistair Special thanks to Hilary Ballon, Amanda Smith, Annette

Abu Dhabi, UAE Rider, Sara Raza. This publication would not have been Südbeck, Serra Pradhan, and Mark Swislocki. Thank you to

A third iteration of this exhibition will be on view at the © 2016 Skira editore possible without the editorial production management of Diana Al-Hadid, and to the artist’s studio.

David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University, which Anne Renahan of Akkadia Press, and her remarkable team,

collaborated on this publication. All rights reserved under international copyright including designer Iain Hector, and editor Farah Rahim The Artist’s Studio wishes to thank Marianne Boesky, Al and

conventions. Ismail. Crucial to its Arabic were the keen eyes, at the Mills Moran, Maya Allison, Annette Südbeck, Serra Pradhan,

Editor: Maya Allison No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any eleventh hour, of Alaa Edris and Mariam Wissam. Nicholas Joyce, and Jon Lott.

Authors: Reindert Falkenburg, Alistair Rider, Sara Raza, form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including

Maya Allison, Jo-Ann Conklin photocopying, recording, or any information storage and We thank lenders to the exhibition: the artist and Marianne The David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University wishes to

Book design: Iain Hector retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Boesky Gallery, Sharjah Art Foundation, Barjeel Art thank Diana Al-Hadid, Maya Allison, Serra Pradhan, Rachel Kay.

Arabic book layout: Larry Issa publisher. Foundation, and H.H. Sheikha Manal Bint Mohammed Bin

Book translation to Arabic: Salam Shughry Rashid Al Maktoum.

Editorial Production Manager: Anne Renahan Printed and bound in Italy. First edition

Editorial Coordinator: Farah Rahim Ismail

Copy editors, English: Farah Rahim Ismail, Michelle Wallin ISBN: 978-88-572-3206-5 (NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery)

Copy editors, Arabic: Mariam Wissam, Mohammad Hamdan ISBN: 978-88-572-3200-3 (Skira editore)

Project Managers: Amanda Smith and Sara Lizzul

Proofreaders: Michelle Wallin, Carl Gibeily and Distributed in the world by Thames and Hudson Ltd., 181A

Mohammad Hamdan High Holborn, London WC1V 7QX, United Kingdom.

Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders

and to ensure that all the information presented is correct.

Some of the facts in this volume may be subject to debate

or dispute. If proper copyright acknowledgment has not

been made, or for clarifications and corrections, please

contact the NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery and we will correct

the information in future reprintings, if any.

CONTENTS

8 Foreword
Maya Allison

17 Phantom Limb – Phantom View

Reindert Falkenburg

29 The Skin is a Screen

Alistair Rider

53 Diana Al-Hadid: Suspended Informal Architectures

in Time and Space
Sara Raza

64 List of Works in the NYU Abu Dhabi Exhibition

66 Artist Biography

68 Exhibitions

72 Contributors

74 List of Illustrations
 FOREWORD
the villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale. This ornately frescoed room formed part
MAYA ALLISON of an estate entombed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, and was recovered in the
Director and Chief Curator Pompeii excavations of 1900. Al-Hadid says:
The Art Gallery at New York University Abu Dhabi

I can’t look at these and divorce myself from the event that brought
This book marks the occasion of Diana Al-Hadid’s first solo exhibition in the Arab world, them to us: the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD... It’s one of
where she is well known and appreciated. The first decade of Al-Hadid’s remarkable the most unfortunate, but for history’s sake, fortunate events. It’s
career has seen over twenty-two solo exhibitions. Among her international exhibitions, kind of horrible to say but it’s a strange paradox: this complete
she has had a major solo presentation at The Secession Gallery, a kunsthalle in Vienna destruction annihilated an entire region, but at the same time,
known for its projects with important new artists. That exhibition, titled The Fates, had preserved it.1
as its centerpiece Phantom Limb, a monumental sculpture that also anchors this book
and the eponymous exhibition at the NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery. This work will appear Perhaps not surprisingly, Pompeii also figures in Al-Hadid’s work, though indirectly, Gradiva, 4th century BCE
in a further iteration at Brown University’s David Winton Bell Gallery in the US, with through her recurring reference to the image of Gradiva (which means “she who Greek bas-relief
whom we are honored to collaborate on this book. walks”). The 4th-century BCE Greek bas-relief of a robed woman walking was first
named in the 1906 novella by Wilhelm Jensen, Gradiva: a Pompeiian Fancy. In it the
Al-Hadid’s work stands apart from much contemporary art via its explicit engagement protagonist, an archeologist, becomes obsessed with the bas-relief figure, and
with art history and architecture, particularly that of Renaissance and Classical imagines meeting her as a lost childhood friend, come to life among the ruins of
periods, a fact that this book explores in depth. Her sculptures’ physicality and visible Pompeii. Freud later produced an analysis of the novella’s protagonist, in which
worked-ness suggest archeology and cultural historicity, while ultimately engaging – Pompeii serves as the protagonist’s unconscious and Gradiva unlocks its secrets. While
or rather, tangling with – the white cube of contemporary art. Jensen’s invention, “Gradiva” is most associated with Freud, who hung a replica of the
bas-relief in his office, to “symbolize the interplay between memory and artifact.” 2
The term “white cube” connotes contemporary art, typically presented within a neutral That interplay resonates in Al-Hadid’s work. Bearing titles like Phantom Limb and
white gallery, on pristine pedestals. In other words: new, the opposite of archeology, Gradiva’s Fourth Wall, her work invites such “Pompeiian fancy,” to discover and restore a
decay, art history. The white cube – and particularly the white cubic pedestal – figures magically preserved past, to stop time, and to experience the past living and breathing
heavily in Al-Hadid’s oeuvre. At the intersection of these ghostly, ornate, decaying in the present.
fragments from art history and the crisp cultural edifice of the white cube, the artist
locates a frisson that haunts the contemporary spaces exhibiting her work. Al-Hadid’s personal history tempts many a biographical reading of her work. Her family
relocated from Syria to Ohio in the US when she was a young child. Her ancestral
That intersection of art history and the white cube manifests physically in her region of Aleppo is rich in layers of cultural history, dating back to ancient times and
sculptures and screens. Bodies meld to fabric, and fabric stands in for skin, while crumbling anew in Syria’s current chapter. One might see her work as a kind of call and
figures deform their pedestals, themselves mere rivulets outlining the space where response with her country of origin. And yet, as she put it when 9/11 was still fresh in
the pedestal should be standing still. Her sculptures ripple through the gallery space our minds:
in waves of polymer gypsum, pigment, and gold leaf. Yet, for all of these spatial
renderings, instead of excavating a pre-existing site, she often starts with the pedestal It’s true that I am in fact, statistically speaking, an Arab woman
and builds outward from it, hollowing and layering simultaneously, working with and living in New York who made work about fallen towers, but I am also
against gravity, with and against history. a woman from the suburbs of Ohio who is deeply interested in Flemish
painting and illustrations of built structures and myths... all these
The Metropolitan Museum of Art recently asked Diana Al-Hadid to pick a work from its things are true, but they feel a little different depending on the
8 collection that she found interesting to discuss on video. She chose the Cubiculum from order you put them in and what you leave out.3 9
 Gradiva’s Fourth Wall, 2011
(detail)
Steel, polymer gypsum, wood,
When Al-Hadid selects a frescoed room preserved by the catastrophe of Pompeii as her fiberglass, and paint

topic for the Met video, and when she invokes the figure of Gradiva, she acknowledges 183 1/2 × 190 3/4 × 132 inches
466.1 × 484.5 × 335.3 cm
these various readings of her work. And yet, the draping of Gradiva’s robe and the
whimsy of perspectival illusion in the cubiculum are at the heart of her formal
explorations – note the way drapery stands in for skin in Gradiva’s Fourth Wall, or the
way figures and paint drippings pile into the flattened space of the Attack panel.

Her homages to Flemish painting were immediately evident to art historian Reindert
Falkenburg, himself a scholar of 16th-century Flemish and Dutch masters. For the first
essay in this book, Falkenburg reflects on Al-Hadid’s Phantom Limb sculpture. In his
own imagined encounter (as he had access to photographs of the work but not the
work itself), he takes the reader through the various associations her work generates
for him, from the Parthenon frieze to Hans Memling’s Allegory of Chastity (1475), a
composition that reappears in another major work in the show, Still Life With Gold.

Alistair Rider, a scholar of modern sculpture, looks deep into Al-Hadid’s art-making
process and the conceptual implications of her choices, both of material and image.
He begins with the observation that the work invites the viewer to wonder about its JO-ANN CONKLIN
making, to consider the inside and the outside of a body or a cube, simultaneously. Director, David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University
Much as Al-Hadid describes her own work, he describes the finished products as “the
outward manifestation of an imaginative and creative journey.” I was delighted when Maya Allison brought the work of Diana Al-Hadid to my attention.
In the ten years since Al-Hadid graduated with an MFA in sculpture from Virginia
Sara Raza, a curator and writer on Middle Eastern contemporary art, frames Al-Hadid’s Commonwealth University, she has honed a signature style that is extraordinary in
development as an artist in the context of Syria’s political catastrophes and as a medium and concept. Her ethereal sculptures reference an eclectic mix of Eastern and
contemporary, Arab-diaspora artist. She takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of the Western thought – from Islamic legends to Renaissance and Mannerist paintings – while
themes and historical references, drawing out the interplay of historical and personal simultaneously engaging the properties and problems of contemporary sculpture.
narrative innovation embedded therein. Growing up as a Syrian immigrant in Canton, Ohio, Al-Hadid developed an artistic
identity that bridges cultural distance – informed by difference yet united by human
Diana Al-Hadid’s work evolves rapidly. She is remarkably prolific. We are honored to play experience. We are happy to present her work at the Bell Gallery, thereby continuing
a role in this early record of her career. our mission of showing the best of emerging and established contemporary artists.

1. “Diana Al-Hadid on the cubiculum from the villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale.” The Artist Project.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2015–2016. Web. 12 January 2016.
2. The information on Gradiva’s invention relies on David Lowenthal, The Past is a Foreign Country (New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1985), 252–255.
10 3. Brent Randall, “Diana Al-Hadid,” Husk, Winter 2013–2014, p.43. 11
 Phantom Limb, 2014
Steel, polymer gypsum, fiberglass, foam, wood,
plaster, metal mesh, aluminum foil, pigment
Approx: 106 × 138 × 143 inches
269.2 × 350.5 × 363.2 cm

12
PHANTOM LIMB — PHANTOM VIEW

REINDERT FALKENBURG

What can you say about a work of art if you do not stand
right in front of it? This is the challenge I am facing,
currently being thousands of miles away from the place Diana
Al-Hadid’s sculpture Phantom Limb is located, and also being
thousands of miles away from NYUAD’s Art Gallery, where
the work is to be exhibited. Since I have never seen the
sculpture with my own eyes, its title strikes me as very apt:
I am actually looking at a phantom — digital images, offered
on the internet. Being an art historian, however, this is not
a particularly unusual situation for me. There is, moreover,
a particular reason why an art historian is being asked
to offer some words on Al-Hadid’s work, since the artist
“references” in her sculptures other works of art, which are
well known from art historical surveys.

It can easily happen, even to the art historically “less

informed eye,” that Phantom Limb, especially in the figure of
a reclining female forming the top of the sculpture, brings
to mind memories of classical torsos such as the Parthenon
sculptures in the British Museum.1 Depending on the angle at
which the images of both these Parthenon sculptures and Al-
Hadid’s sculpture have been taken (and this is the “material,”

17
I recall, that I am actually looking at), I see similarities my art historical background. And there is one piece of
between a male reclining torso with cut-off legs, as well information offered by several publications on Al-Hadid’s
as the remnants of a female reclining figure cloaked in a work that heartens me in my approach. The artist has a BA
thin veil of fine drapery on the one hand, and the nude torso in art history, and is quite open in interviews about the
topping Phantom Limb on the other. inspiration she gets from iconic works of the past, such as
the cartoon Raphael made for a tapestry representing Christ’s
In seeing these similarities, I become aware of the fact Charge to Peter (1515—16), Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s The
that Al-Hadid’s sculpture does not directly “reference,” Tower of Babel (1563),2 or Hans Memling’s enigmatic Allegory of
or “cite” (let alone “copy”), the Parthenon frieze, but Chastity (1475).3 Especially the latter painting, which offers
triggers my memory of it. This memory-effect is actually a striking visual comparison with Al-Hadid’s Phantom Limb. But
stronger when I do not make a direct visual comparison between before I briefly describe the similarities, I have decided not
the images (on my table) of Al-Hadid’s sculpture and the to include any illustration to accompany my text, because I am
Parthenon frieze, but let my memory freely play with only not sure to which degree the sculpture (apart from its creator)
the suggestion of a link, offered by Phantom Limb. Then I “wants” me to burden anyone’s perception of it with visual
begin to see, or imagine, that the straight lines of the reference material that may, or may not, be relevant and more
drippings of (what I read, are) “polymer gypsum, fiberglass, in particular, cannot easily be “un-seen.” I would like to
polystyrene” material, which make up the major part of leave it to the reader to decide for her- or himself, to which
the lower sections of Al-Hadid’s sculpture, as a kind of degree one wants to run the risk of “over-loading,” and thus
translation, transfiguration, of the fine folds in the drapery narrowing, one’s immediate perception of the sculpture by way
of the classical torso. It is as if these drippings, because of bringing other images directly to the experience.
they optically run down, “unveil” the torso in an echo of the
drapery over the Parthenon figure. Having said this, I start I am making a point of this, because Al-Hadid’s sculptures are
to wonder whether my perception of the “stripping” effect of susceptible to this kind of perceptional “over-loading” due,
the polymer drippings relies on the shaky grounds of my own also, to certain formal characteristics, i.e. the fact that they
art historically informed imagination — and in reality, when cascade out into the physical space of the viewer and have strong
one stands before “Phantom Limb,” hardly occurs, if at all. anthropomorphic, but at the same time ruinous and fluid, features,
Or even worse: do these very lines have the effect that the which make them vulnerable to encounters with their human
viewer “sees” something that in reality is not there? counterparts. They are not “objects” set apart from the realm of
humans like traditional sculptures are, by way of a pedestal or
For me, however, there is no way back: I cannot “un-see” showcases that warrant their physical and aesthetic independence.

18 19
In the case of Al-Hadid’s sculptures the pedestal is used in landscape and is guarded by two heraldic lions. The barren
a radically different way. Traditionally, the pedestal serves rock clearly symbolizes the woman’s virginity and, like a
to separate the work of art from the physical realm of the pedestal, spatially sets her apart from whomever approaches
viewer, and to protect (and herald) the work of art as if her. This picture in its own right resonates with other images
it were a virgin guarded in a chastity tower. In Al-Hadid’s of the period, especially in illustrated manuscripts of the
sculptures, however, the pedestal or multiple pedestal-like Romance of the Rose (1230—1275), where the virginity of a
forms are integrated in the work itself. They are, moreover, woman is rendered visually with a castle or tower that is
the edgy, rigid cubical forms over which the human form at under assault by male offenders and is defended by (female)
the pinnacle of the sculpture pours itself out onto the very personifications of female virtues.
gallery floor on which the viewer is standing. In Phantom
Limb, the solid female torso transforms into long stripes Memling’s painting offers a striking point of reference
of polymer drippings and a broad swirl of horizontal polymer for the “jumelage” of geology and human figures that Al-
sheets and cloth-like lumps. These cascade down around and Hadid’s sculptures display, which results in the paradoxical
behind the cubical pedestal formations — as if to form a impression that inorganic sheets of synthetic material
baroque staircase — resulting in a pool of sculpture “debris” breathe the life of animated form, but also of decay. The
on the gallery floor. This pool ends in the only part of the isolated limb that lies on top of the pristine pedestal of
ensemble that seems unaffected by the forces of corrosion and Al-Hadid’s Phantom Limb echoes the notion of vulnerability
ruination: a shallow square platform. Brightly painted and that is embedded in the rock formation in Memling’s Allegory
decorated with gold-leaf arabesques, it serves as the platform of Chastity. The anthropomorphism of the female body which
for the remnant of a human leg — the “phantom limb” proper. one finds in late-medieval images of (rock) towers re-occurs
The cubical forms at the center of this swirl participate in in Al-Hadid’s sculpture as a whole, because — at least
the dissolution of solid form. The hardened drippings that seen from certain angles the entire structure, from “head”
define their contours look like whitish coagulated blood, (torso) to “toe” (the isolated leg) — it suggests the Gestalt
suggesting altars on which the female torso is sacrificed. of a classical reclining figure. The wear and tear that
characterizes the surface of many classical sculptures exposed
Hans Memling’s enigmatic Allegory of Chastity is an to the elements is actively worked here by the artist into the
illuminating (and for Al-Hadid, conscious) point of reference very “skin” of the sculpture. Its “pocked” nature reads as a
4
for all of this. It represents a female figure, clothed in comment on the artificial whiteness and wholeness of classical
contemporary (15th-century) attire, whose lower body is sculptures — “artificial” because in ancient times they were
encased in a barren rock formation that rises above a natural covered in intense colors that heightened their liveliness; in

20 21
reality their pristine whiteness, rather than the few remnants Seen from afar it looks as if these inner parts are, or were,
of color that they sometimes still betray, is the true sign of subject to great pressure, which has pressed together the
decay and the ruinous state of these sculptures. Beyond its material — foam or other substances that one associates with
general whitish appearance, Phantom Limb shows many patches industrial construction processes. In terms of their irregular
of pigments — blues, greens, yellows — executed in a soft tonal stratification and “messy” color distribution they contrast
palette, which look like traces of withering too. They are again with the white “tears of blood” that flow from the sharp
however truly “pristine” in the sense that they are willfully edges of the cubicles’ plateaus.
construed as a rich “withering” effect, which effectually
contrasts with the modern industrial materials from which the A final word on space and location. It is clear that Phantom
sculpture is de facto fabricated. This is just one example of Limb lays claim on its surroundings far beyond the strict
many internal contradictions that the work manifests. location it physically occupies. The sculpture opens itself
only to viewers going around it; only then do the dynamics
If one follows with one’s eyes the drippings, which are of its form unfold experientially. The viewer thus becomes
clearly shaped by gravity as much as by the artist, one finds an actor in anchoring the sculpture visually and physically
that, where they drop from the legs and knees of the torso within the gallery setting, as its relationship between the
for example, they flow into thin puddles of molten, but now floor, the gallery walls, the surrounding light etc. changes
solidified, material that optically carries and supports rather with one’s every step. In this process, the sculpture’s form-
than detracts material from the legs and torso above. These transforming power affects one’s perception of the entire
drippings then signal sustainability in and through decay. gallery space. One can argue that it ends where this interplay
between sculpture, viewer, and gallery no longer physically
Similarly in other areas, for example where they define the exists. But if one takes a step back (or many, many steps, to
contours of the pedestal or cubicle forms, the frayed ruffs of where I write these lines), and mentally maps this sculpture
these synthetic “icicles” suggest solidity of form; actually, and its location on NYU Abu Dhabi’s campus onto the (memory
they hover in the air and leave so much space between the of) its wider environment, then another interactive experience
individual strings that one can see through them, as through of the sculpture may occur. Seen from afar — literally and
a perforated screen, allowing pockets of hollow space partly figuratively — NYUAD’s campus looks like a bright cruise ship
visible behind this veil. Solidity of form is an illusion sailing in the desert of Saadiyat Island (I cannot refrain
created, paradoxically, by way of transparency. The materials from associating the oval shape of the Library with the funnel
from which these more internal parts of the cubicles are made of a steamliner). Raphael Viñoly’s architecture changes my
can only be made out when one stands very close to the object. perception of the entire desert island, but also internally,

22 23
 of the cargo the ship is carrying, or rather: what the cargo
is, that the ship brings to the island. In this imagined
perception, Phantom Limb on NYUAD’s campus on Saadiyat Island
is like the engine room of this ship, it reinvigorates the
past, and in the sense of the word “renaissance,” rebirths it
for the many passengers it carries and the manifold cultures
they represent.

1. 
Statue from the British
Museum's Parthenon
sculptures.

2. 
Pieter Bruegel the
Elder, The Tower of
Babel, 1563, (see also
p.43, FIG. 16).

3. Hans Memling’s Allegory

(1) (2) of Chastity, 1475.

4. 
Memling’s painting is
also a direct source
for another work in
this exhibition, Still
Life With Gold, 2014,
by Diana Al-Hadid
(detail).

(3) (4)

24
The Sleepwalker, 2014
Polymer gypsum, fiberglass, steel, gold leaf,
pigment
Approx: 144 × 132 × 8 inches
365.8 × 335.3 × 20.3 cm
THE SKIN IS A SCREEN

ALISTAIR RIDER

In place of a conventional artist’s catalogue for her solo

exhibition at the Vienna Secession in 2014, Diana Al-Hadid
prepared a small artist’s book.1 The publication has the size
and feel of a slim pocket journal. The sheets are squared,
and filled with jottings in the artist’s hand, interleaved by
illustrations that are designed to look as though they have
been taped down loosely. The first few pages show sketches of
the Secession floor plan, layered with annotated doodles for
potential configurations for her future exhibition. Towards
the beginning, one note reads “mountain growing from behind
this side,” and a long arrow lunges into a near indecipherable
thicket of handwriting and scribble. Over the page, she
sketches up this idea (FIG. 1). Some pyramid-shaped heaps loom
up, overlooking a valley cluttered with flowing lines. A quick
swirling loop in the foreground bears the label “puddle on
site.” But the stream of ideas doesn’t pool here. It trickles
on, from page to page, accumulating additional layers of detail
along its meandering course. Pictures of well-known sculptures
and paintings intimate sources of inspiration, while snapshots
of works in progress in her Williamsburg studio register the 1. S
ketch from Diana Al-Hadid,
The Fates, artist book,
reach of her journey, as initial ideas gradually evolve into Publisher: Secession, Vienna
tactile shapes. 2014

29
 The passage Al-Hadid presents of her creative working process degree, so that smooth, burnished surfaces sit cheek by jowl
concludes with a picture printed on glossy photographic with textures that are raw and pockmarked. The generally
paper. It shows the large hall of the Secession and was taken uneven levels of handling across the works’ multifaceted
while her works were being installed in the summer of 2014 planes only adds to the feeling that the ensemble is subject
(FIG. 2). Nobody is present, although the ladder, bucket and to an incipient formlessness that threatens to overwhelm
protective sheeting indicate that the business of making is the entire composition. Al-Hadid frequently casts materials
still ongoing. Scattered round about Phantom Limb, one of the in ways that give the impression that they are melting away
main works in that exhibition, lie additional segments of before our very eyes. They look as though they have congealed
sculpture, awaiting their placement in the larger assemblage. rapidly, and might liquefy again at any moment. Nothing seems
It is a picture of near readiness, or what we might call “the particularly stable at any level. This powerful image of
final stages.” And by making this the concluding image she mutability has led some commentators to regard her work as
could not be clearer that the works exhibited are intended to a reflection on more fundamental societal instabilities.2 But
be seen, above all else, as the outward manifestation of an more immediately, the fluidity and open-endedness of her work
imaginative and creative journey. is perhaps better understood as a metaphor for the energies
of creative artistic activity.
However, viewers of Al-Hadid’s sculptures and drawings
may wonder whether finality is a state her works ever fully In this article, I discuss a number of themes and concerns
embrace. The actual process of making might well be over, that Al-Hadid has explored since graduating from art college
but in our mind’s eye we can imagine how they could evolve ten years ago. My aim is to provide readers with a thematic
further. Even in their completed state they exude a powerful context for the works included in this exhibition, and
impression of being in a permanent state of flux. Sometimes especially for Phantom Limb. This major large-scale sculpture,
the sculptures have multiple elements, providing viewers which was displayed for the first time at the Vienna Secession
with markedly diverse impressions from different angles. in 2014, consists of a complicated arrangement of molded
Certain forms appear unresolved, as though the process of surfaces and textures that are stacked up on one another
assembly might have been curtailed abruptly. In fact, some to form a sizeable heap (FIG. 3). Perched atop this is the
aspects of her sculptures still look as rough and amorphous torso of a reclining female figure, a motif that has featured

2. V
iew of The Fates as the hurried jottings that fill the Secession notebook, prominently in a number of Al-Hadid’s recent works. The title
exhibition during as though we are standing in front of the three-dimensional of the sculpture alludes to the distressing psychological
installation, Vienna
Secession, Austria,
equivalent to a sketch. But the level of finish is far from condition occasionally experienced by amputees who continue
2014 consistent. Other parts might be worked up to a much higher to feel sensations stemming from an absent body part. In this 3. P
hantom Limb, 2014

30 31
 work, the “limb” in question is a truncated leg, presented during her residency at Graphicstudio at the University of
on a low-lying white plinth off to one side, and clearly South Florida in 2010 (FIG. 5). The studio at the Institute
belonging to the female figure depicted in the sculpture for Research in Art collaborated with a local foundry so
(FIG. 4). Al-Hadid playfully invites us to imagine that this that she could try out the time-tested tradition of lost wax
statue, headless though she is, still has thoughts of her casting. The procedure is notoriously laborious; it involves
own, and can still feel the twitch of her absent leg. Of multiple stages and requires extensive technical skill. First,
course, most viewers who see the figure will not regard it you take the object you want to cast and encase it in a mold.
as remotely life-like. The pose, after all, is a mainstay of Then you fill the mold with wax, which gives a replica of the
Western art, and invokes Ancient Greek, Renaissance and Neo- original form. Next, you construct another mold from heatproof
Classical precedents. The truncated limbs and speckled patina clay around your wax model. After that, you heat up the clay
are more likely to be read as an allusion to the intended age to melt away the wax, leaving an empty core for the metal to
of the statue, than to the actual bodily dismemberment of a fill. And only then are you ready to do the actual casting.
person. Generally it looks much more like a representation of Bronze liquefies at roughly 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit, which
a sculpture than it does a depiction of a living, breathing means there is little scope for spontaneity or experimentation
person and it would take a considerable leap of faith to see at the moment when the bright yellow metal pours from the
this object as having agency. But this seems part of the crucible down specially prepared channels, and into the mold.
point. After all, phantom limb syndrome is a condition in Everything has to be prepared meticulously. Yet the look of
which the ability to distinguish between the real and the the accidental and spontaneous is exactly what Al-Hadid wanted
imaginary becomes horribly confused. And, as an art form, to achieve. For her sculpture, In Mortal Repose (2011), she
sculpture itself has also provided a cultural space in which developed a body cast of the torso of a reclining female
infantile, regressive dreams about inanimate, unreal things figure. But when it came to pouring the molten wax, she found
coming to life can be entertained.3 Such topics recur in many a way of permitting the liquid to spill out from the mold
different guises throughout Al-Hadid’s work. She explores and drip uncontrollably down the stepped plinth that she had
them through the images that she adopts, and also via the specially constructed. Once hardened, the resulting shape was
themes that she references. But she also pursues the uncertain then cast in bronze. The upper section remains recognizable
borderlines between the real and the imaginary by probing the enough, but the lower half of the torso has collapsed into a
fantasies that are associated with handling materials; she swirling morass of bronze undulations. Two bare feet appear
dreams, we might say, through her sculptural processes. almost unscathed at the support’s base, connected merely by
a thin surface layer of metal. Analogies to actual bodily
4. P
hantom Limb, 2014 (detail) Consider, for instance, one of the works that Al-Hadid made mutilation might be difficult to avoid. But this is also a 5. I
n Mortal Repose, 2011

32 33
sculpture that proclaims that it is about the technique of workshop environment. This need not necessarily be regarded
casting. It is a bronze that has been made to look like the as a reactionary stance. In 2004, the critic Johanna
melted wax that the procedure of casting in bronze requires. Drucker pointed out that one of the major challenges for
The unplanned, uncontrolled appearance of the work returns contemporary artists was to find a way of ensuring that their
the focus to the site of the studio, and to the thrill in work looked as different as possible from “other consumable
undertaking an established workshop technique only to discard objects in mainstream material culture.” 6 She observed
the rules at the final moment. Al-Hadid has often spoken of that one effective strategy for accomplishing this was to
her interest in testing out her chosen resources, putting adopt a visually conspicuous attitude toward production.
pressure on them in order to discover how they will behave In this respect, it does not matter if an artist flaunts
under duress. The sense of the volatility and roughness of her their artisanal incompetence by exhibiting crudely arranged
work is thus in large part testimony to her love of tactile assemblages of cast-offs, or whether they choose to labor
experimentation with processes and materials. for months transforming raw materials into a meticulously
wrought artifact. The larger issue is that thanks to the
Al-Hadid’s openness about her hands-on engagement with the automation of manufacture, the perfect levels and rounded-off
specialist skill-sets that are closely associated with the edges that we associate with what she calls “showroom finish”
western sculptural tradition might initially seem unexpected. have become so universal that, if artists aspire to these
After all, it is no longer routine to walk into modern standards, their work runs the danger of looking like any
galleries and encounter works of art that look as labored other commodity.7 Drucker’s suggestion is that the popularity
over and handcrafted as hers do. It has come to be taken for among younger contemporary artists for adopting alternative
granted that ambitious art need not involve or require any techniques and standards for making things is a way of
particular technical know-how. For a generation of artists distinguishing their work as art. Al-Hadid’s commitment to a
who came of age in the late 1960s and 1970s, not having studio-based practice, on the one hand, and, on the other, to
a studio was a mark of pride, not embarrassment, and the an unresolved and imperfect “look,” deserves to be understood
liberation of art from the shackles of craft competence was within this wider context. The visceral impact that is made
4
openly celebrated. By the 1980s and 1990s it was commonplace by sculptures like Trace of a Fictional Third (2011) or
for artists who wished to display large-scale, object-based Phantom Limb derives in large part from their extraordinarily
5
works to outsource the fabrication to specialist technicians. varied textures (FIG. 6). In fact, it is hard to conceive of
However, since the start of the new century there has been surfaces that are more different in look and feel from the
a growing trend among artists to re-engage with skills and flawless machined finishes that we handle on a daily basis. 6. T
race of a Fictional Third,
processes that involve making things by hand, often in a The fissured walls of drips, the drapery encrustations and 2011 (detail)

34 35
the congealed puddles that feature in her sculptures do Hadid uses it. She employs synthetic sculpting resources
little to hide their origins in unconventional, messy studio because they are available, and because they enable her to
processes. The resulting surfaces appear very “low-tech;” nor achieve the intricate, evocative, tactile effects that she is
do they look that pleasant to touch. In fact they often invoke after. But she gives no impression that she has an enduring
discarded, abject things — objects that have gone brittle with loyalty to these substances for their own sake. This is
age, or clammy with mold. worth underlining, because the overall impression that we
get as viewers from her sculptures is of a palpable sense of
Despite the traditional casting and modeling techniques that materiality. Yet this haptic perception cannot be said to have
Al-Hadid uses, many of the materials she has chosen have much to do with the constitutive materials in themselves. It
not been around for that long. The main ingredients of her is triggered instead by the fact that we recognize a range
sculptures are synthetic. For instance, one of the substances of recurring shapes and textures within her sculptures. These
that she employs regularly is a material called polymer we read as the traces of physical processes with which we are
gypsum, a generic term that refers to a substantial range likely to be rather more familiar, such as crumpling, tearing,
of widely available products. Essentially, she uses it as a or dripping.
modern alternative to sculptor’s plaster. It can be applied
in combination with other materials, including fiberglass, Of these procedures, it is perhaps the telltale outline
and, once hardened, it can be worked further with abrasives of the congealed vertical drip that is the most important.
7. P
hantom Limb, 2014
or other tools. It is also lighter, quick drying and more Stalactitic shapes recur in some form or another in almost all
(detail)
resilient than traditional water-based gypsums, which is why of her recent work. They cascade downwards in a shower, or
it is now commonly used to mold anything from architectural they trickle over mysteriously absent steps to form puddles
details to giftware figurines. Indeed, versatility is its that hang implausibly in the air. In sculptures such as
basic attribute: a surrogate substance, designed to be Phantom Limb some of the perpendicular surfaces of the stacked
able to conceal its own features by looking as though it plinths are made entirely from bands of gypsum stretched
could be something else. In its raw, unworked form, it is taut by gravitational flow (FIG. 7). In the Blind Bust series
unlikely that many people would be able to name it, or even from 2012, she uses a similar technique to equivalent effect,
know what it was for. Unlike more familiar art resources although here the drips are fashioned from bronze. In fact, it
that have strong distinguishing attributes (like marble or does not really matter what material she uses: the impression
bronze, for example), polymer gypsum operates incognito. of a relentless, downward force remains dominant regardless
We might say that it is a medium less intended to be worked (FIG. 8). Nor is it that important ultimately, whether the
in, than through.8 And this also seems true of the way Al- shapes of running droplets were actually formed by pouring a 8. B
lind Bust I, 2012

36 37
liquefied material, or if they were just made to look like this Hadid is a sculptor who exploits the conventions of picture
through some other technique. As viewers, we come to read all making in order to create physical objects that often aspire
vertical striations in her art as “drip-like.” to the status of images. The titles of two works from 2012,
At the Vanishing Point, and Suspended After Image, ought to
Take, for instance, her recent drawings in charcoal and pastel. be enough to alert us to the fact that she is an artist who
In these, dense vertical lines commonly cloak the entire does not distinguish between sculpture on the one hand, and,
surface of the paper, and, when these are exhibited alongside on the other, optical and perceptual effects (FIG. 9 and 10).
9. A
t the Vanishing
her work in three dimensions, they only serve to amplify the For her, both are inextricably related. For At the Vanishing Point, 2012
shimmering, trickling verticals of the sculptures. And the Point, she created a box-like niche that gives the impression
sight of the many hardened dribbles in bronze or gypsum makes that it recedes much further than it does in actuality, while,
the drawn hatching in the works on paper look even more like in Suspended After Image, she created three-dimensional forms
the gravitational pull of liquefied matter. In turn, these that are meant to resemble the residue of retinal impressions.
atmospheric, fuliginous two-dimensional representations can More recently, in 2015, she titled an exhibition at a gallery
also help draw attention to other aspects of the sculptures. in Los Angeles Ground and Figures, where she exhibited a
They point to the very painterly effects generated by the number of vertical latticed panels, formed from thin strands
streams of congealed drips in the works. In certain sculptures, of polymer gypsum and fiberglass, layered with paint and gold
some are even flecked with pigment, which we might read as a leaf. These works hang from the walls, like shallow reliefs,
10. S
uspended After Image, 2012
subtle allusion to the surface textures of paintings, and a although since they lack a continuous ground plane, they
reminder that pictorial conventions are part of her sculptural act more like screens, enabling viewers who stand close
concerns. For Al-Hadid, drips are used to trace the presence of enough to see through them, the surface of the wall behind.
surfaces and volumes that otherwise hardly exist. In place of The largest work of this kind formed a diaphanous partition
the solid, tactile object, she regularly presents a web-like across the gallery itself, and a gate-sized aperture in the
carapace, one that frequently looks fragile, and tends almost center permitted viewers to step across the virtual ground
always to be incomplete. This gives the works a certain spidery plane (FIG. 11). Here, Al-Hadid’s painterly interests could
lightness, enabling the sculptures to appear more evanescent not be more explicit. Her materials and technique enable
and gravity-denying than they are in reality. In short, we her to weave together the outlines of figures, buildings and
11. S
moke Screen, 2012.
might say that the drips enable her to achieve the impression landscapes, like a sorcerer, conjuring apparitions from thin Installation view Ground

that she is painting in air. air. Complementing these works was a free-standing sculpture, and Figures exhibition,
Moran Bondaroff, LA, 2015.
which was perhaps her most ambitious attempt to date to magic The work is seen in the
Another way of phrasing this might be to suggest that Al- up a specter from her chosen hoard of ingredients — polymer foreground

38 39
 gypsum, fiberglass, steel, wood, concrete and polystyrene. The (both from 2012) or Phantom Limb (2014) might seem to belong
work’s title, however, acts as a reminder that viewers are not to a hybrid class of sculpture that has few precedents in
supposed to be completely fooled by the show-stopping special recent art. Yet these works could also be understood as an
effects: this one is named Smoke and Mirrors (FIG. 12). imaginative re-engagement with the forms and conventions
of the tableau. This is a genre that traditionally has
The wider issue is that, for Al-Hadid, optical illusions occupied the interstitial zone between the arts of painting
cannot be separated from tangible, palpable objects. The and sculpture. We can think of it in relation to its better-
things she makes are made to look like things that deceive. known sibling, sculptural relief, which is a type of three-
Figures resemble ghosts, while solid objects are shaped to dimensional art that adopts many of the formal conditions
look vaporous. The reclining body in Actor (2009) seems of the framed picture. A relief is a sculpture that is
rounded and full from the front, yet it turns out to be not intended to be seen in the round. The forms and figures
as rigid as a plank when viewed from the side. From a are drawn out from a ground, and viewers encounter the
distance, her creations can appear mysteriously ethereal and presentation from the front, as they would a two-dimensional
hallucinatory, as in Smoke and Mirrors, but close up they painting.9 The tableau, on the other hand, can be described
are disconcertingly physical and present. The sculptures and as a picture that has been liberated from its frame. The
panels entice viewers with teasing deceptions, but only go figures, the background scenery, and other elements of the
14. P
 ontormo, Visitation,
so far. This means that when we look at her works, we also composition are actualized in the real space of the gallery.
c. 1514–16
find ourselves thinking about our own experiences of seeing. Viewers are free to move around the resulting staged assembly,
And ultimately it is this that makes the art compelling. The although certain points of view are likely to provide
12. S
moke and Mirrors, 2015
blurring of the pictorial and the sculptural that fascinates privileged perspectives.10
Al-Hadid can result in visual ambiguities and clever
spectacular effects, but in themselves these are made less We see this in particular in At the Vanishing Point (FIG. 9
significant than by the fact that they provoke more measured and 15), which is a work that was loosely inspired by a
reflection on the nature of fantasy itself, not to mention the sixteenth-century fresco in Florence by Jacopo Pontormo.11 The
interdependency of sight and imagination. fresco depicts a scene from the Gospel of Luke in the Christian
Bible (FIG. 14), when the Virgin Mary is greeted by Elizabeth,
These are key themes for Al-Hadid, and arguably no more so both of whom are soon to become mothers. But Al-Hadid focuses
than for the most ambitious and large-scaled sculptures she less on the story than on the highly stylized setting in
has created to date. Works such as Gradiva’s Fourth Wall which the encounter takes place, for Pontormo sets his figures 15. A
t the Vanishing
13. G
radiva’s Fourth Wall, 2011 (2011) (FIG. 13), Nolli’s Orders and At the Vanishing Point on a staircase, surrounded by classical architecture that is Point, 2012

40 41
consistent in style with the church in which the fresco is Al-Hadid’s sculptures offer numerous instances of this
located. In this way, the religious scene is made to appear as nature. Evocative glimpses into interior spaces abound
though it is spatially coterminous with the viewer’s, as though throughout her work, permitting rich opportunities for
nothing separates these divine presences from the worshippers, viewers to embark on flights of fancy. A tiny chink can offer
apart from a flight of ascending steps. Al-Hadid’s At the up a keyhole glimpse into an otherworldly palace of strange
Vanishing Point presents an actual interior space, constructed textures. In these moments, we are allowed to lose our
from walls of polymer gypsum and fiberglass, that taper on one bearings. But there are plenty of other occasions when we
side to accentuate an impression of perspectival recession are reminded of our here-and-now presence, when the objects
when viewed frontally. This structure is then raised to eye refuse to mold themselves to our fantasies. Her sculptures
level on a series of stepped plinths. As a three-dimensional oblige us constantly to shuttle between a sense of the
model, it barely resembles the virtual proportions depicted exteriority of things and fleeting, momentary impressions
by Pontormo, nor does it incorporate any forms that can be of complete immersion. This is particularly evident in her
read easily as figures. Only some drapery, carpeting the stairs early works, which often allude to the inside and outside
of the plinths, alludes loosely to their presence. Yet their experiences that are offered by built forms. Several of
absence is perhaps appropriate, since the subtle illusion of these sculptures recall fantastical edifices, reminiscent
ieter Bruegel the Elder,
16. P
nearness that the fresco produces is lost once the depiction is of Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s famous painting The Tower of
The Tower of Babel, 1563
translated (however freely) into a three-dimensional tableau. Babel (1563) with its pinnacles reaching through the clouds,
The critic Brian O’Doherty once observed that one of the or Giovanni Piranesi’s densely detailed prints of colossal
consequences of the tableau form is that it can leave viewers edifices (FIG. 16 and 17). We might say that her inspiration
feeling like intruders, or even “trespassers.” It positions during this period derived from imaginary buildings that
the spectator apart from the setting in the nowhere space of exude a sense of monumentality, which artists like Bruegel
the gallery, looking in at a scene that might be close by or Piranesi generated by amassing layer upon layer of dense
12
physically, but can also feel very remote. This also seems visual information. The tiny figures often visible in the
to ring true for At the Vanishing Point. To stand directly in foreground of these pictures — clambering up staircases, or
front of the sculpture, gazing into the interior space with surveying blocks of masonry — only accentuate the sublime
its uncertain sense of scale, is an absorbing experience. We proportions of these immense buildings. Their allure stems
can immerse ourselves in studying the many crevices and facets largely from the fact that they permit viewers to imagine
of the cave-like interior, but physically and psychologically what it might be like to pass through their cavernous
17. G
iovanni Piranesi,
we can never enter its ambit. Its world is not ours. We remain passageways, or look down into vertiginous voids. In her Carcere, Plate VI,
resolutely outside. early pieces, Al-Hadid invokes similar impressions, as in, 1745–61

42 43
 for instance, Tomorrow’s Superstitions from 2008, where the in a spin. In volume it might be slight and human-sized, but
level of detailing is reminiscent of an architect’s scale in its architectural form it implies an immense scale. The
model (FIG. 18). This work consists of a ziggurat tower, idea of a dancing cathedral is thus as much a construct of a
spiraling upwards, replete with rows of arched windows. She daydream as it is an actual built thing.
then adds further complexity to the structure by partially
cloaking the central tower with additional layers of archways Tomorrow’s Superstitions and Spun of the Limits of My
and walling that bulge outwards implausibly. A tangled Lonely Waltz establish an analogy between the human body
exoskeleton of little stick scaffolding adds yet another and built form based on a loose correspondence in size. Yet
stratum of intricacy. other sculptures from this period also present buildings
as metaphors for embodiment, without invoking the scale and
Tomorrow’s Superstitions stands seven and a half feet from proportion of the human form. For instance, one sculpture
the floor. It is considerably taller than an average person, from 2008 is called Self Melt (FIG. 20). Depicting an upturned
although in shape and stature it does recall the proportions tower, it looks as though it is being sucked through the
of a standing figure. Al-Hadid seems interested in thinking of neck of an invisible hour glass and is congealing below in
buildings as human-like, and in exploring the ways they can an untidy heap. The liquidization of a building becomes a
be imagined as shells, which can be inhabited and worn, like symbol for the decomposition of a body image, or the undoing
cloaks. In this sculpture, the multiple swirling layers that of the architecture of the self. Built forms provide Al-Hadid
make up the work are in some ways reminiscent of the shrouds with such a productive range of analogies for characterizing
18. T
omorrow’s
that blanket an embalmed corpse. Similar analogies appear in personhood and individuality because they too have insides
Superstitions, 2008
one of the very earliest sculptures that she created after and outsides, public facades and secretive inner sanctums. The
graduating from art college. Spun of the Limits of My Lonely images and impressions of interiors and exteriors found in her
Waltz from 2006 (FIG. 19) takes the shape of an upside-down art, that play off one another, are aligned with the ways in
gothic cathedral, which, as its title implies, acquired its which we commonly think about our inner and outer selves. Al-
proportions by her measuring out the steps of a dance she Hadid has what we might call an “architectural imagination,”
had performed in her studio. The parameters of the building because she makes these depths a matter of surfaces. After
and its rhythmic proportions have been drawn in, and reduced all, like buildings, her sculptures consist almost entirely of
in scale, so that they reflect the immediate outer reaches skins, screens, layers and coatings. The physical structure,
of a circling body. But although the resulting structure as well as the meanings of the works, are lodged in their

19. S
pun of the Limits of My is constricted to just five feet wide, it is also upturned, exterior surfaces.
Lonely Waltz, 2006 pivoting precariously on its spires, as though still caught 20. S
elf Melt, 2008

44 45
 Two recent figurative sculptures, Synonym (2014) and Antonym strange by seeing it on the inside surface, so that it is
(2012), make this particularly apparent (FIG. 21 and 22). now back to front, so to speak. In fact we see front and
These works are disconcertingly hollow, created through an back, inside and outside all at once, which obscures any
intricate process of casting, and both represent different clear, consoling impression of warm, tactile presence. Our
versions of the same model. In each the pose of the reclining eyes busily flicker from surface to surface, following the
female is identical, although in coloration they differ. undulations and contours over the striations and around the
Furthermore, since the figure is only represented by thin streaks of colored pigment.
shells that fashion the surfaces of the body to different
degrees, the torso of Antonym seems significantly more present Think again of that fragment of a leg, which lies abandoned
than is the case for Synonym. This impression is compounded on its plinth, separate but also a part of Phantom Limb. Like
by a similar treatment of the plinths on which the figures Synonym and Antonym, it is an object that looks as if it has
repose. With Synonym, the pedestal is reduced to a few blobby been subject to multiple processes of molding and shaping.
straws of polymer gypsum, terminating in formless puddles. These actions have resulted in its dry, mottled textures of
For Antonym, the base seems more solid, although telltale green umber and beige, but they can also be read as mapping
striations around the lower sections imply that this state out all the intricate and complex workings of the psyche. In
is only temporary and that the work of deforming is already this, and in all of Al-Hadid’s work, interiority is splayed
underway. When treated as a pair, it is hard not to feel that out over the screen of the skin.
these works represent stages of a process of deletion rather

21. S
ynonym, 2014 than composition. It is as if some external force is eroding
these figures, along with their plinths.13 The process seems
oddly analogous to the ways in which pixels can be erased
on the screens of our computers with the stroke of a mouse.
Confronted by these two sculptures, viewers might desire to
fill in the absent sections and imagine the physical presence
1. Diana Al-Hadid, The Fates, ed. Diana-Al Hadid, Tina Lipsky, Annette Südbeck, Secession,
that is only insinuated. But attempts to restore a genuine Vienna, 2014.
impression of volume and depth in this way are not likely 2. 
See, for instance, Xandra Eden, “Vanishing Act: Perspective and Doubt in the Art of Diana Al-

to be particularly satisfying. These two sculptures allow Hadid,” in Nancy Doll (ed.), Diana Al-Hadid, Exhibition Catalogue, Weatherspoon Art Museum,
University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2013, p.13. (See also Sara Raza’s essay, pp.53–60.)
viewpoints through the ragged gaps of the skins of the figures
3. 
This is a theme explored by Kenneth Gross in The Dream of the Moving Statue (Ithaca and London:
and into the interior volumes that bodies conventionally Cornell University Press, 1992), and Victor I. Stoichita, in The Pygmalion Effect: From Ovid to
22. A
ntonym, 2012 occupy. The familiar smoothness of bare shoulders is made Hitchcock (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2008).

46 47
 Synonym, 2014
Polymer modified gypsum,
fiberglass, stainless steel, pigment
74 3/4 × 60 × 60 inches
189.9 × 152.4 × 152.4 cm
Edition of 5 + 1 AP

John Roberts explores this subject in detail in The Intangibilities for Form: Skill and
4. 
Deskilling in Art After the Readymade (London: Verso, 2008).
5. 
Brandon Taylor addresses this tendency in his discussion of the London fabricators, Mike Smith
Studios. See his article “Virtuosity and Contrivance in the New Sculpture,” in Jonathan Harris
(ed.), Value Art Politics: Criticism, Meaning and Interpretation after Postmodernism (Liverpool:
Liverpool University Press, 2007), pp.397–423.
6. 
Johanna Drucker, “Affectivity and Entropy: Production Aesthetics in Contemporary Sculpture,” in
M. Anna Fariello and Paula Owen (ed.), Objects and Meaning: New Perspectives on Art and Craft
(Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2004), p.136.
Drucker, “Affectivity and Entropy,” p.136.
7. 
8. 
My phrasing is borrowed here from Michael Fried’s remarks on Anthony Caro’s use of painted metal.
See his “Introduction,” Anthony Caro: Sculpture, 1960–1963, exhibition catalogue, Whitechapel Art
Gallery, London; reprinted in Michael Fried, Art and Objecthood: Essays and Reviews (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1998), p.273.
9. 
The German sculptor Adolf von Hildebrand (1847–1921) provided the classic analysis of the formal
properties of the relief in his essay, The Problem of Form in Painting and Sculpture, trans. Max
Meyer and Robert Morris Ogden (New York: G.E. Stechert, 1907), pp.80–99.
10. 
For a discussion of the tableau form, see Briony Fer, The Infinite Line: Re-making Art after
Modernism (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2004), pp.85–99 and Roland Barthes,
“Diderot, Brecht, Eisenstein,” in Image Music Text, trans. Stephen Heath (London: Fontana, 1977),
pp.69–78.
11. 
The work in question by Pontormo is Visitation (1514–16), in the SS. Annunziata. Gregory Volk
discusses the relation between the fresco and Al-Hadid’s sculpture in “Protean Adventures: On
the Art of Diana Al-Hadid,” in Nancy Doll (ed.), Diana Al-Hadid, pp.16–17.
12. Brian O’Doherty, Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of Gallery Space (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1993), p.49.
13. 
My reading here draws on Rosalind E. Krauss’ discussion of art nouveau furniture in her book
Passages in Modern Sculpture (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1977), pp.33–34. The chapter in which
her remarks feature also include a number of observations about the role that surfaces play in
Auguste Rodin’s sculptures. These too have informed my argument. For a more recent and wide-
ranging discussion of the role of surfaces in art and architecture, see Giuliana Bruno’s Surface:
Matters of Aesthetics, Materiality and Media (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014).

48
DIANA AL-HADID: SUSPENDED INFORMAL
ARCHITECTURES IN TIME AND SPACE

SARA RAZA

Inspired by a multitude of interests in spatial, historical,

sci-fi and mythological trajectories, contemporary artist Diana
Al-Hadid regularly employs principles of “informal” architecture
alongside the thinking sciences to create an allegorical body of
work. Predominantly working in sculpture and installation, her
practice oscillates between the visual idioms of the ancient and
the modern, always in transition. Within her practice, the dual
concepts of decay and suspension emerge in situ through the large
scale and labor-intensiveness of her projects, which explore the
repetitive cycle of death, decay and rebirth. As such her practice
remains deliberately open-ended, and serves multiple vantage
points, charting an alternative system for mapping art and ideas.
This essay zigzags between history, time and place to explore
the philosophical concept of disaster within a larger conceptual
reading of destruction that goes beyond humanitarian catastrophe
to excavate hidden complex economic, social and political systems
that are interwoven between histories and cultures.

Utilizing the human figure as a system of measure to map distinct

cerebral, imaginary and physical spaces, Al-Hadid’s works pay
tribute to the concept of aftermath: of monuments and ruins and
their subsequent relationship to both condition and location.

53
Hovering somewhere between real and imaginary dream-like zones biography and that of humanity as a whole enables this reading
of consciousness, Al-Hadid’s works acutely capture myriad stages of the artist’s allegorical practice to transcend nationalism.
of disintegration, which appear either static or frozen in Al-Hadid’s art opens up a much wider discussion on the fractures
mid-motion, and are intentionally devoid of a defined beginning that exist within the collective consciousness of humanity,
or ending. Instead her practice remains deliberately fluid moving beyond a reading of centers and peripheries, to that
and elastic and weaves in between conceptual and metaphorical of interconnected encounters that surf between various cross-
junctures of time and space. circulating thematics.

Born in 1981 in Syria, Al-Hadid immigrated with her family to This essay reads Al-Hadid’s works as a posthumous/post-apocalyptic,
Ohio, US, when she was a young child. She hails from the ancient and possibly sci-fi, visual ode to the literal and figurative, the
city of Aleppo, a major historical intersection for the cross- visible and invisible hairline cracks that exist within the notion
circulation of Asian, African and European cultures and trade. of a calamity. As such her highly poetic works can be framed within
However, in recent years Aleppo has been the focus of another the writing of French philosopher Maurice Blanchot’s seminal text
cross-section, being caught in between a bloody onslaught of The Writing of the Disaster, in which he explores the implications
sectarian and political conflict that has ravaged the country of disaster and puts forth an unapologetic literary reflection on
since 2011, with dire consequences that regularly make world news the infinite retribution of disaster. Not overly sentimental nor
1
headlines at the time of this publication. scientific, Blanchot’s reflection serves as interesting reading
for Al-Hadid’s works. Blanchot argues that “the disaster ruins
In retrospect, one might view Al-Hadid’s artworks as a lens everything, all the while leaving everything intact. It does not
through which to witness remotely this violent theatrical power touch anyone in particular.” 2
play; however, this contradicts her multifaceted sources,
which draw from a variety of historical, literary and artistic Blanchot’s reading of disaster finds an analog in Al-Hadid’s
references. While one can certainly draw parallels with the monumental Phantom Limb (2014). This composite material sculpture
political situation currently unfolding within her native Syria, suggests a hybrid archeological ruin and collapsing industrial
Al-Hadid has been making work in this vein since well before the construction site. Decomposing, scaffolding-tiered platforms
current Syrian conflict emerged. Thus the first parallel gives way appear to simultaneously ascend and descend, occupying a middle
to a second reading of her work as a reflection on the omnipresent space that evokes imminent — or recent — disaster. Of course, the
ghosts of tragedy and disaster that have migrated through title itself suggests a sense of loss and memory, as the term
history and time and are implicitly part of a repetitive cycle “phantom limb” refers to a medical condition experienced by
of grief and mourning. The parallels between her birth nation’s amputees who have lost an actual limb, but can still feel its

54 55
 sensation. As with Blanchot’s disaster that ruins everything, through the semantics of freedom, which Scheherazade performs by
yet leaves everything intact, the ruined limb is still there the retelling of tales in exchange for her life. The “oriental”
in the sensory experience of the amputee. Al-Hadid’s sculpture decadence of oil lamps, magic genies and flying carpets presented
can be read as a comment on a state of disrepair and a moment in One Thousand and One Nights open up the fantastical and floaty
of rupture; it speaks to the memory and trauma associated realm of “the East to the West” in Al-Hadid’s sculpture. Here,
with architecture or heritage that has been destroyed. One layers of contrasting matter appear to float in space, embodying
can draw parallels between Phantom Limb and the destruction of the essence of the main character who has quite literally erupted
historical sites as a result of conflict, where the destruction of from an actual ancient rubbing lamp akin to a magic genie (or
architecture is an attack on civil society. At the heart of that jinn, as mythical super beings are better-known in Islamic
collapse, one could read the artist’s city of birth, Aleppo. It mythologies). Al-Hadid’s sculpture alludes to Scheherazade’s
has witnessed some of the fiercest fighting between various groups suspension and emancipation into the air from the repressing
vying for power, ranging from governmental loyalists to radical layers of “oriental” debris that are rooted in folk literature
Islamic separatists who have established an Islamic State (IS) and the colonial imagination. This piece serves as a metaphor for
throughout parts of Syria and into neighboring Iraq, destroying ideas pertaining to chance and sleight of hand, evading disaster
several historical sites. Controlled demolition of sites that through the act of flight and the evocation of destiny.
are deemed sacrilegious by this group has been a regular activity
of barbarism, whereby the amputation of culture and heritage The concept of time is an important and recurring element
parodies equally horrific public marring or executions. By throughout Al-Hadid’s work. One can chart a middle space of time
contrast, Al-Hadid’s art draws a less visceral picture, affirming that resides between the ascent and descent of her installations.
her ongoing allegorical oeuvre, which shifts, subverts, and defies This middle space, time suspended, offers infinite opportunity
a didactic reading and instead references both the philosophical for the imagination to take flight. In Water Thief (2010) (FIG. 24)
implications of nostalgia and amnesia as symptoms that affect she refers directly to work of 12th-century Muslim scientist Al-
both the mind and the body. Jazari, who developed engineering practices for mechanical objects
such as rotary devices within the clock. A celebrated polymath,
In Al-Hadid’s earlier works, the notion of infinite disaster Al-Jazari made an astonishing contribution to modern day sciences.
entwines with mythology and literature, as evidenced in her Al-Hadid adapted his ideas to create a new way of experiencing
mixed media sculptural work entitled Finally, The Emancipation and viewing spatial form and matter in her Water Thief. In this
of Scheherazade (2006) (FIG. 23). “Scheherazade” refers to the monumental installation, she draws from Al-Jazari’s mechanical
23. F
 inally, the
Emancipation of
central protagonist from the epic One Thousand and One Nights. explorations and extracts the inventor’s basic mechanical
Scheherazade, 2006 (Syria, 9th century CE). The classic stories are categorized functions. Her own version is a seemingly decaying water “thief,”3 24. W
ater Thief, 2010

56 57
resembling the site of an ancient archeological find, as opposed multiple histories, including the high drama of the Western
to a high-definition, sleek, contemporary rendition of Al-Jazari’s Renaissance (FIG. 25). The sculpture’s figures reference Mannerist
water clock masterpiece. She incorporates some of the clock’s and Northern Renaissance works, and create a mammoth sculptural
actual internal components, such as those resembling drums and architectural hybrid work. The title refers to the historical
and channels that would have been part of Al-Jazari’s original Nolli map, designed by Giambattista Nolli, the acclaimed 18th-
machine. The sculpture activates an intersection between the body century Italian architect and surveyor who designed a plan of
and mechanical motion, first by the artist’s meticulous sculpting the city of Rome. The map articulated an ichnographic plan of
of a form from fiberglass, plaster, wood and other composite the city and provided an astounding cultural typography of the
materials. The resulting structure solicits audiences to move urban space, replacing icons and symbols with actual interior
around its fragile form, thereby linking the idea of time and and exterior views, including figures. Al-Hadid’s inspiration
spatial movement with a wider conversation on historical turns, takes from elements of this plan, and she utilizes the features
and the way in which history is repurposed and re-applied here in of human forms, which are aided by scaffolds to suggest the idea
conjunction with the built and un-built environment. of a highly networked system of construction and the expansion
of urban space, all the while retaining a sense of tension that
Interestingly, Al-Hadid’s practice makes explicit the relationship implies the possibility of collapse.
that exists between art and architecture, and, further, how that
intersects with space and time. These intersections evolve in Nolli’s Orders provides an interesting reading into current
her work via a conceptual coexistence with histories of shifting thinking around human geographies and the alternative
modernities and technologies. In this way, her epic sculptures methodologies. In particular, Al-Hadid’s process here, mapping
draw from historical sources and highlight the study of lived a period of European history that celebrated art and scientific
experience. In works such as Water Thief, art and the implications ideas, provides for an acute comparison with her interests in the
of built-up space are a direct consequence of the changing social, work of Muslim polymath Al-Jazari, who lived during the golden age
cultural and political influences and influencers. of Islam. During this period in Islamic history, which spanned the
8th to 13th centuries, Muslim scientists made a profound impact
Al-Hadid’s fluid practice is a study of space and matter (or on the advancement of science and mathematics, having successfully
architecture) that can move and change in response to perception. evolved many of the concepts that were first introduced by the
She explores how art and ideas can be mapped and connected to Greeks. These ideas in turn provided the basis for Europe’s
cultural memory. Her appropriation of history is remarkable, scientific and cultural advancement, yet the contribution of
especially her ability to polarize scientific and geographical Muslim scientists have remained largely unacknowledged within the
histories. Within Nolli’s Orders (2012) she pays homage to mainstream historical discourse. Al-Hadid weaves between different 25. N
olli’s Orders, 2012

58 59
 histories and time zones, uncovering connections, complexity,
and the bias of history. The sheer magnitude of Al-Hadid’s
dense body of work, which echoes her voice as an artist and
catalyst, makes explicit her position as a shape-shifter for
art and ideas around sculpture, time and spatiality.

The contemporary sculptures that Al-Hadid creates represent a

fragmented society and culture, where imaginary zones exist next
to visions of catastrophe. Her works reject the idea of solid
footing and subtly reflect on unbalanced social and political
spaces, which are the result of several interconnected systems.
As an artist she probes the signs and semiotics of power systems,
where phantoms haunt and taunt ideas pertaining to security and
stability. Al-Hadid is an artist whose practice attempts to
dissolve various boundaries between the mythical and the real. By
creating an amalgam of these magical zones, her art is equally
inflected with decay and beauty, and she provides a timely and
relevant critique on the subject of humanity and “nowness,” where
everything exists in a state of flux.

1. 
The ongoing conflict in Syria, which can be largely attributed to the domino effect of the Arab
Spring across the Arab world since late 2010, has resulted in the destruction of scores of towns
and cities, including Aleppo, and the displacement and forced exodus of hundreds of thousands of
Syrian refugees, who have fled to neighboring countries and to Europe.
2. Maurice Blanchot, The Writing of the Disaster, p.1. University of Nebraska Press (Lincoln & Still Life with Gold, 2014
Nebraska) (1995). Polymer gypsum, fiberglass, steel, gold leaf, pigment
3. 
The artist notes: “I chose the term ‘water thief’ because it is a direct translation of the other Approx: 133 1/2 × 144 × 8 inches
name for a water clock clepsidra, but that is not how the device is commonly understood.” 339.1 × 365.8 × 20.3 cm

60
 LIST OF WORKS IN THE NYU ABU DHABI EXHIBITION

Phantom Limb, 2014 Untitled, 2014 Attack, 2015

Steel, polymer gypsum, fiberglass, polystyrene, wood, Bronze Polymer gypsum, fiberglass, steel, plaster, gold leaf, pigment
plaster, metal mesh, aluminum foil, pigment 3/4 × 32 × 30 inches 86 × 120 × 5 1/2 inches
Approx: 106 × 138 × 143 inches 1.9 × 81.3 × 76.2 cm 217.2 × 304.8 × 14 cm Untitled, 2011
269.2 × 350.5 × 363.2 cm Photo: Oliver Ottenschläger Photo: Matt Grubb Charcoal, watercolor, conte and pastel on vellum
Unframed: 137.8 × 103.5
Framed: 149.5 × 116 × 6.5
Collection of Barjeel Art Foundation

Still Life with Gold, 2014 Counter-Attack, 2016

Polymer gypsum, fiberglass, steel, gold leaf, pigment Polymer gypsum, fiberglass, steel, gold leaf, aluminum leaf,
Approx: 133 1/2 × 144 × 8 inches pigment
339.1 × 365.8 × 20.3 cm Vanishing Point, 2010 86 × 120 × 5 1/2 inches Gradiva’s Fourth Wall, 2011
Bronze 218.4 × 304.8 × 14 cm Steel, polymer gypsum, wood, fiberglass, and paint
21 × 10 × 19 inches Photo: Matt Grubb 183 1/2 × 190 3/4 × 132 inches
53.3 × 25.4 × 48.3 cm 466.1 × 484.5 × 335.3 cm
Unique Sharjah Art Foundation Collection
Photo: Jason Wyche
Collection of H.H. Sheikha Manal Bint Mohammed Bin Rashid
Al Maktoum

The Sleepwalker, 2014

Polymer gypsum, fiberglass, steel, gold leaf, pigment
Approx: 144 × 132 × 8 inches Attack Again, 2016
365.8 × 335.3 × 20.3 cm Polymer gypsum, fiberglass, steel, pigment
86 × 120 × 5 1/2 inches
218.4 × 304.8 × 14 cm
Photo: Matt Grubb
64 65
 ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

DIANA AL-HADID

Diana Al-Hadid (b. 1981) is a Syrian-American artist who lives and works in
New York, whose works of ephemeral materiality have gained international
acclaim. At once enigmatic and monumental, her unconventional use of
materials such as polymer gypsum, wax and gold leaf are fused with filtered
references of visual histories, ranging from Hellenistic sculpture and Greek
and Arab mythology, to Northern Renaissance painting. Intensely detailed
structures are discovered across her paintings and room-sized installations,
which seem to drip and float to offer compelling experiences of a world
turned on its head, challenging our perceptions of gravity and volume.
Al-Hadid’s signature techniques have formed a body of works that, although
they evoke centuries past, are unique in their expressive reflections of the
human condition and the fragility of current civilization.

Diana Al-Hadid received a BFA from Kent State University, MFA from Virginia
Commonwealth University, and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting
and Sculpture. Recent solo exhibitions include The Fates, Secession, Vienna,
Austria (2014); Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC (2013); Virginia
Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond (2012); the University of Texas Art Center,
Austin (2012); La Conservera, Murcia, Spain (2011); and Hammer Museum,
Los Angeles (2010). Her work has been included in numerous international
group exhibitions, including Glasstress 2015: GOTIKA, an official collatoral
event of the 56th International Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2015); NOW-
ism: Abstraction Today, Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, OH (2014); Invisible Cities,
Mass MoCA, North Adams (2012); Unveiled: New Art from the Middle East, The
Saatchi Gallery, London (2009), and the 9th Sharjah Biennial, UAE (2009).
She is a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow in Sculpture, United States
Artists Rockefeller Fellow, and a recipient of Joan Mitchell Foundation,
Tiffany Foundation and Pollock-Krasner Foundation awards. Her works have
been acquired by a number of institutions and public collections, including
DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA; The Whitney Museum
of American Art, New York, NY; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond,
VA; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX and Weatherspoon Art Museum,
Video still from The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s artist
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Al-Hadid is represented by project: Diana Al-Hadid on the cubiculum from the Villa of
66 Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York. P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale 67
 EXHIBITIONS

SOLO EXHIBITIONS GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2016 Diana Al-Hadid: Phantom Limb, The David Winton Bell Gallery, Brown 2015 BLACK/WHITE, Ameringer | McEnery | Yohe, curated by Brian Alfred,
University, Providence, RI New York, NY
Diana Al-Hadid: Phantom Limb, The Art Gallery at NYU Abu Dhabi, Glasstress 2015: GOTIKA, Palazzo Franchetti, an official collateral event of
Abu Dhabi, UAE the 56th International Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
The Sculptor’s Eye: Prints, Drawings, and Photographs from the Collection,
2015 Ground and Figures, Moran Bondaroff, Los Angeles, CA deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA

2014 The Fates, Secession, Vienna, Austria 2014 Apocryphal Times, Friedman Benda Gallery, New York, NY

Diana Al-Hadid, The Canzani Center, Columbus College of Art and Design, Diana Al-Hadid, Wang Gongxin and Lin Tianmiao: Transcendences, Dowd Gallery,
Columbus, OH SUNY Cortland, Cortland, NY

Diana Al-Hadid: Regarding Medardo Rosso (two-person exhibition with #IN.TER.FER.EN.CE, The Farjam Foundation, Dubai, UAE
Medardo Rosso), Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY Alter/Abolish/Address, as part of 5×5:2014, a project of the D.C. Commission
on the Arts and Humanities, L.A.N.D. (Los Angeles Nomadic Division),
Washington D.C.
2013 Diana Al-Hadid: Nolli’s Orders, Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH
NOW-ism: Abstraction Today, Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, OH
Diana Al-Hadid, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC (traveled to
SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA) Four Decades of Drawings and Works on Paper, John Berggruen Gallery, San
Francisco, CA
Tarīqah, Barjeel Art Foundation, Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah, UAE
2012 The Vanishing Point, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY
Graphicstudio: Uncommon Practice at USF, Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL
Trace of a Fictional Third, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
BLACK/WHITE, LaMontagne Gallery, curated by Brian Alfred and Shay Kun,
Suspended After Image, Visual Arts Center, The University of Texas at Austin,
Boston, MA
Austin, TX

2013 10 under 40, Istanbul ’74, curated by Isabella Icoz, Istanbul, Turkey
2011 Sightings: Diana Al-Hadid, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, TX
Levity/Gravity, EXPO Chicago, curated by Shamim M. Momin, Chicago, IL
Play the Wolf Fifth, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo, La Conservera,
Murcia, Spain Remainder, Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK
Diana Al-Hadid: Water Thief, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV Cadavres Exquis, Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence, France
1986–2013/An Artist Collecting Art, Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, Norway
2010 Hammer Projects: Water Thief, UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2012 It Ain’t Fair 2012, OHWOW, Miami, FL
2008 Reverse Collider, Perry Rubenstein Gallery, New York, NY Body Double: The Figure in Contemporary Sculpture, Frederik Meijer Gardens
and Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids, MI
REORIENTED, Havremagasinet, Luleå, Sweden
2007 Record of a Mortal Universe, Perry Rubenstein Gallery, New York, NY
Jack Helgesen Family Collection, Vigeland Museum, Oslo, Norway
Jack Helgesen Family Collection, ARCIHTECTONS, Haugar Art Museum,
2006 Pangaea’s Blanket (and the Slowest Descent from Grace), Visual Arts Gallery,
Tønsberg, Norway
DePauw University, Greencastle, IN
Invisible Cities, MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA
The Fourth Room, Vox Populi, Philadelphia, PA
68 Immodest Mountain, Arlington Art Center, Washington, D.C. 69
 2011 Printed Histories: 15 years of Exit Art portfolios 1995–2011, Exit Art, 2009 Disorientation II, Manarat Al Saadiyat, Saadiyat Island, curated by Jack
New York, NY Persekian, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Home Alone, Adam Sender Collection, Art Basel Miami Beach, curated Fresh From Chelsea, University of Florida University Galleries, Gainesville, FL
by Sarah Aibel, Miami, FL Inside Walls, 432 South 5th, curated by Ryan Muller, Brooklyn NY
Collapse, RH Gallery, New York, NY New Weather, University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum,
CARAVAN, Barjeel Art Foundation, Maraya Art Center, Sharjah, UAE Tampa, FL
Night Scented Stock, Marianne Boesky Gallery, curated by Todd Levin, Next Wave Festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music, curated by Dan Cameron,
New York, NY Brooklyn, NY
Outdoor Excursions, curated by Gregory Volk, BCA Center, Burlington, VT In the Between, Tabanlioglu Architects, curated by Suzanne Egeran,
Touchy Feely, Human Resources, Los Angeles, CA Istanbul, Turkey

Lost Paradise, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue? Watou 2009, curated by Joost Declercq,
Watou, Belgium
One, Another, The Flag Art Foundation, curated by Stephanie Roach,
New York, NY Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts, Academy of Arts & Letters, New York, NY

Disquieting Muses, Contemporary Art Center of Thessaloniki – State Museum Sharjah Biennial 9, Sharjah, UAE
of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece Unveiled: New Art From the Middle East, The Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
Nereden Nereye, Galeri Mana, Istanbul, Turkey
NOWNESS, Peel Gallery, Houston, TX 2008 Anthology, Otero Plassart, Los Angeles, CA
Black Bile, Red Humour: Aspects of Melancholy, Center for Arts and Culture,
2010 It Ain’t Fair 2010, OHWOW, Art Basel Miami Beach, exhibition design by Rafael curated by Oliver Zybok, Montabaur, Germany
de Cardenas, Miami, FL The Station 2008, Midblock East, curated by Shamim Momin and Nate
Art on Paper 2010: the 41st Exhibition, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC Lowman, Miami, FL

Run and Tell That!, Syracuse University Art Galleries, curated by Eric Gleason
and David Prince, Syracuse, NY 2007 Agitation and Repose, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, curated by Gregory Volk and
Does the City Munster Matter?, Center for Contemporary Art, Munster, Sabine Russ, New York, NY
Germany Blood Meridian, Galerie Michael Janssen, curated by David Hunt, Berlin,
The Silk Road, Saatchi Gallery, London in Lille, France Germany

Paper, Fred Snitzer Gallery, Miami FL

Does the Angle Between Two Walls Have a Happy Ending, Federica Schiavo 2006 AIM 26, Bronx Museum, Bronx, NY
Gallery, curated by Ishmael Randall Weeks, Rome, Italy Mutiny, The Happy Lion, curated by David Hunt, Los Angeles, CA
From the Incubator: Sculpture Space, Islip Art Museum, East Islip, NY The Sanctuary and the Scrum, Black and White Gallery, curated by David Hunt,
New York, NY

70 71
 CONTRIBUTORS

MAYA ALLISON SARA RAZA

Maya Allison is founding Director of the Art Gallery and Chief Curator at Sara Raza is the Guggenheim UBS MAP Curator for the Middle East and
New York University Abu Dhabi. The NYUAD Art Gallery is a non-commercial North Africa, based in New York. She has curated several international
museum-gallery with a program encompassing contemporary and historical exhibitions and projects for biennials and festivals, including A Drop of
exhibitions. She came to NYUAD from her position as Curator at Brown Sky, for the 3rd YARAT Public Art Festival, Baku, Azerbaijan (2015), Rhizoma
University’s David Winton Bell Gallery. She has also held positions as Program (Generation in Waiting) at the 55th Venice Biennial (2013); the 6th Tashkent
Director of the city-wide, international new media showcase Pixilerations, Biennial at the Art Gallery of Uzbekistan (2011); and co-curated the 2nd
Director of the 5 Traverse Gallery, and interim curatorial head of the Bishkek International, In the Shadow of Fallen Heroes, at the Bishkek Historical
Contemporary Art Department at the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Museum and Alto Square, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (2005). She has also curated
Design (“The RISD Museum”), all in the US. She holds an MFA from Columbia a number of solo and group exhibitions. Previously, Raza was the head of
University, a BA in art history from Reed College, and was awarded a research education at YARAT Contemporary Art Space, Baku, Azerbaijan; founding
fellowship on curatorial practices at Brown University’s Center for Public head of curatorial programs at Alaan Art Space, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia;
Humanities. Her previous book-length projects include Slavs and Tatars: and curator of public programs at Tate Modern. Raza has lectured and
Mirrors for Princes (JRP | Ringier, 2015), and Wunderground: Providence, 1995 to participated in panels internationally and is a writer and longstanding editor
the Present (RISD Museum and Gingko Press, 2006). for ArtAsiaPacific magazine for West and Central Asia. She is the author of the
forthcoming Punk Orientalism (2016), published by Black Dog Publishing.

REINDERT FALKENBURG
ALISTAIR RIDER
Reindert Falkenburg is Professor of Early Modern Art and Culture, and
serves as Vice Provost of Intellectual and Cultural Outreach, at the NYU Abu Alistair Rider teaches art history at the University of St Andrews. He has
Dhabi Institute. Previously, he has held positions as Chair of the Art History a long-standing interest in all forms of modern sculpture, although to
Department at Leiden University, The Netherlands; Professor of Western date he has mainly centered his studies on European and North American
Art and Religion at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California; artists who came of age during the 1960s and 1970s. He is the author of a
Deputy Director of the Netherlands Institute for Art History; and Research monograph on Carl Andre (Things in their Elements, 2011), which developed
Fellow of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences. His scholarly interests from his doctoral dissertation, completed at the University of Leeds.
regard, in particular, early Netherlandish painting and late-medieval carved Currently, he is writing a book on artists who have devoted their careers
altarpieces. His books include Joachim Patinir: Landscape as an Image of the to single, life-long projects.
Pilgrimage of Life (Amsterdam/Philadelphia, 1988); The Fruit of Devotion:
Mysticism and the Imagery of Love in Flemish Paintings of the Virgin and Child,
1450–1550 (Amsterdam/Philadelphia, 1994) and The Land of Unlikeness.
Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights (Zwolle, 2011) – French
72 edition: Bosch: Le Jardin des délices, Paris, 2015. 73
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

All Diana Al-Hadid artworks and images: Diana Al-Hadid Diana Al-Hadid Diana Al-Hadid
© Diana Al-Hadid The Sleepwalker, 2014 Smoke Screen, 2015 Synonym, 2014
Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery Polymer gypsum, fiberglass, steel, gold leaf, pigment Polymer gypsum, fiberglass, steel, gold leaf, plaster, pigment Polymer modified gypsum, fiberglass, stainless steel,
© New York Approx: 144 × 132 × 8 inches (365.8 × 335.3 × 20.3 cm) 114 × 360 inches (289.6 × 914.4 cm) pigment
Photographed by Markus Wörgötter: pp.26–28, 64 Installation view from Ground and Figures, Moran Bondaroff, 74 3/4 × 60 × 60 inches (189.9 × 152.4 × 152.4 cm)
The Fates, installation view, Vienna Secession, 2014 LA, 2015 Edition 1 of 5, with 1 AP
Photographed by Oliver Ottenschläger: pp.6–7 Sketch from Diana Al-Hadid, The Fates, artist book, Publisher: Courtesy of the artist, Moran Bondaroff, Los Angeles, and Photographed by Isabel Asha Penziien: pp.46 (fig. 21), 49-52
Courtesy of the artist and Vienna Secession Secession, Vienna, 2014 Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York. Photographed by Joshua
p.29 (fig. 1) White: p.39, (fig. 11) Diana Al-Hadid
Gradiva, 4th century BCE Greek bas-relief Antonym, 2012
Photograph by Rama, Wikimedia Commons, View of The Fates exhibition during installation, Vienna Diana Al-Hadid Polymer gypsum, fiberglass, steel, wood, polystyrene,
Cc-by-sa-2.0-fr: p.9 Secession, Austria, 2014 Smoke and Mirrors, 2015 pigment
Photographed by Diana Al-Hadid for The Fates, artist book, Polymer gypsum, fiberglass, steel, wood, concrete, foam, 68 × 63 × 54 inches (172.7 × 160 × 137.2 cm)
Diana Al-Hadid Publisher: Secession, Vienna, 2014: p.30 (fig. 2) black mesh, pigment Unique
Phantom Limb, 2014 p.40 (fig. 12) p.46 (fig. 22)
Steel, polymer gypsum, fiberglass, foam, wood, plaster, Diana Al-Hadid
metal mesh, aluminum foil, pigment In Mortal Repose, 2011 Jacopo Pontormo Diana Al-Hadid
Approx: 106 × 138 × 143 inches (269.2 × 350.5 × 363.2 cm) Bronze and concrete Visitation, c. 1514–16 Finally, the Emancipation of Scheherazade, 2006
Photographed by Markus Wörgötter: pp.12–16, 25, 31 (fig. 3), 72 × 71 × 63 1/4 inches (182.9 × 162.6 × 142.9 cm) Fresco at SS. Annunziata, Florence Fiberglass, vinyl, polystyrene, plaster, wood, paint, flock
32 (fig. 4), 37 (fig. 7), 64 Photographed by Jason Wyche: p.33 (fig. 5) © Getty Images: p.41 (fig. 14) p.56 (fig. 23)

The Parthenon Sculptures Diana Al-Hadid Giovanni Piranesi Diana Al-Hadid

Marble statue, pediment, Classical Greek, Athens, Trace of a Fictional Third, 2011 Carcere, Plate VI, 1745-61 Water Thief, 2010
438–432 BCE Steel, polymer gypsum, wood, fiberglass and paint UK Government Art Collection Polymer gypsum, fiberglass, steel, polystyrene, plaster,
© The Trustees of the British Museum: p.24 (footnote 120 × 240 × 156 inches (304.8 × 609.6 × 396.2 cm) © Crown copyright: UK Government Art Collection: wood and paint
image 1) Photographed by Jason Wyche: p.35 (fig. 6) p.43 (fig.17) Dimensions variable
Photographed by Dean Burton: p.57 (fig. 24)
Pieter Bruegel the Elder Diana Al-Hadid Diana Al-Hadid
The Tower of Babel, 1563 Blind Bust I, 2012 Tomorrow's Superstitions, 2008 Diana Al-Hadid
Oil on panel Bronze, painted stainless steel Polystyrene, polymer gypsum, steel, silverleaf, and paint Nolli's Orders, 2012
114 × 155 cm 74 1/4 × 36 × 36 inches (188.6 × 91.4 × 91.4 cm) 60 × 48 × 90 inches (152.4 × 121.9 × 228.6 cm) Steel, polymer gypsum, fiberglass, wood, foam, plaster,
Courtesy of KHM-Museumsverband, Picture credit: Edition 1 of 6, with 2 AP p.44 (fig. 18) aluminum foil, pigment
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Wien: p.24 (footnote image 2), Photographed by Jason Wyche: p.37 (fig. 8) 264 × 228 × 122 inches (670.6 × 579.1 × 309.9 cm)
43 (fig. 16) Diana Al-Hadid Photographed by Dennis Harvey: p.59 (fig. 25)
Diana Al-Hadid Spun of the Limits of My Lonely Waltz, 2006
Hans Memling At the Vanishing Point, 2012 Wood, polystyrene, plaster, fiberglass, paint Diana Al-Hadid
Allegory of Chastity, 1475 Steel, polymer gypsum, fiberglass, wood, foam, aluminum foil, paint 72 × 64 × 64 inches (182.9 × 162.6 × 162.6 cm) Gradiva's Fourth Wall, 2011
Allégorie de la chasteté ou la Sainte Pureté dans une forteresse Approx: 132 × 152 × 90 inches (335.3 × 386.1 × 228.6 cm) Courtesy of the artist, The Weatherspoon Art Museum, and Steel, polymer gypsum, wood, fiberglass, and paint
d’améthyste gardée par deux lions (MJAP-P 857) Photographed by Jason Wyche: pp.39 (fig. 9), 41 (fig. 15) Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York: p.44 (fig. 19) 183 1/2 × 190 3/4 × 132 inches (466.1 × 484.5 × 335.3 cm)
Credit: Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André – Institut de France Photographed by Kevin Todora, Nasher Sculpture Center:
© Studio Sébert Photographes: p.24 (footnote image 3) Diana Al-Hadid Diana Al-Hadid pp.11, 40 (fig. 13), 65
Suspended After Image, 2012 Self Melt, 2008
Diana Al-Hadid Wood, steel, polymer gypsum, fiberglass, high density foam, Polymer gypsum, steel, polystyrene, cardboard, wax, Video still from Diana Al-Hadid on the cubiculum from the Villa
Still Life with Gold, 2014 plaster, paint and paint of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale. The cubiculum (bedroom)
Polymer gypsum, fiberglass, steel, gold leaf, pigment 126 × 282 × 204 inches (320 × 716.3 × 518.2 cm) 58 × 56 × 75 inches (147.3 × 142.2 × 190.5 cm) seen is: Roman, Late Republic. c. 50–40 B.C. Fresco. The
Approx: 133 1/2 × 144 × 8 inches (339.1 × 365.8 × 20.3 cm) Photographed by Robert Boland: p.39 (fig. 10) Photographed by Tom Powell: p.45 (fig. 20) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Photographed by Markus Wörgötter: pp.24 (footnote Copyright 2015 MMA, photographed by Jackie Neale: p.67
image 4), 61–63, 64
Photo credit information pertaining to the Arabic section of
the book can be found in the Arabic List of Illustrations.
74 75