Diana Al-Hadid

Other Resources Articles Biography

Diana Al-Hadid Exhibited at The Saatchi Gallery

The Tower of Infinite Problems

The Tower of Infinite Problems (detail)

The Tower of Infinite Problems (detail)

The Tower of Infinite Problems (detail)

The Tower of Infinite Problems (detail)

The Tower of Infinite Problems (detail)
Diana Al-Hadid
The Tower of Infinite Problems

2008

Polymer gypsum, steel, plaster, fibreglass, wood, polystyrene, cardboard, wax and paint

241.3 x 442 x 251.5 cm
Diana Al-Hadid is a Syrian-American artist who lives and works in New York. Her sculptures take ‘towers’ as their central theme, drawing together a wide variety of associations: power, wealth, technological and urban development, ideas of progress and globalism. They are also – both in legends such as the Tower of Babel, and reality, such as the horrors of the World Trade Centre attacks – symbols of the problems of cultural difference and conflict. Al-Hadid’s Tower of Infinite Problems poses as a toppled skyscraper. Made from crude materials such as plaster, Styrofoam, wax, and cardboard, her structure is a monument to human fallibility. Sprawling on the floor like an imaginary archaeological find, the sculpture places the viewer in a fictional role as futuristic observer, mourning the tragic follies of a past (our current) civilization. If viewed from the end, the two parts of the structure converge in an optical illusion, creating a spiral vortex suggesting a cyclical repetition of history.
Self Melt (and 6 details)

Self Melt (detail)

Self Melt (detail)

Self Melt (detail)

Self Melt (detail)

Self Melt (detail)

Self Melt (detail)
Diana Al-Hadid
Self Melt (and 6 details)

2008

Polymer gypsum, steel, polystyrene, cardboard, wax and paint

147.3 x 142.3 x 190.5 cm
Al–Hadid’s geometric forms attempt to bridge mystical and scientific understandings of the world. As intensely patterned and detailed structures, her works draw from the traditions of Islamic art, where abstract motifs are used to encourage contemplation of God’s infinite wisdom. An ‘infinite wisdom’ that is also the focus of the particle physics research being done at the Large Hadron Collider – a 17 mile tunnel beneath the Swiss-French border – where scientists are attempting to locate the “God Particle” by reproducing the Big Bang. In Self Melt the top section of the sculpture is based on Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s 1556 painting The Tower of Babel. Presented upside down, the ziggurat becomes an inverted form, like an hourglass turning back time, suggesting a reversal of cultural diaspora. Through its rough hewn and barbaric appearance – reminiscent of a geological formation or frozen asteroid - Self Melt points to a mythological point of origin, where diversity and itsconsequences are supernaturally preordained.
All The Stops

All The Stops (detail)

All The Stops (detail)
Diana Al-Hadid
All The Stops (and 2 details)

2007

Cardboard, wood, metal, plastic & paint

264.2 x 172.7 x 142.2 cm

Al-Hadid has described her work as "impossible architecture". All The Stops envisions a palatial structure, utilising stylistic elements from a variety of incongruous periods from medieval churches to futuristic stadiums. Shaping her work like an upturned trumpet, musical references are found throughout the piece: broken onceglorious columns are made from plastic recorders, decorative tiers are shingled with tiny piano keys. The spindly architecture suggests
the evasive quality of sound, with each level contributing to a sense of harmonic rhythm. The building however, is presented as a ruin, empty and desolate, its decrepit power culminating in an eerily silent crescendo.


Diana Al-Hadid's Biography

Diana Al-Hadid
Born in 1981, Aleppo, Syria
Lives and works in Brooklyn, New York


SOLO EXHIBITIONS


2012
Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY
Visual Arts Centre, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX

2011
Diana Al-Hadid:water Thief, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV
La Conservera, Centro de Arte Contemporaneo, Murcia, Spain
Nasher Sculpture Centre, Dallas, TX

2010
Water Thief, UCLA Hammer Museum, Hammer Projects, Los Angeles, CA

2008
Reverse Collider, Perry Rubenstein Gallery, New York, NY

2007
Record of a Mortal Universe, Perry Rubenstein Gallery, New York, NY

2006
The Fourth Room, Vox Populi, Philadelphia, PA
The Gradual Approach of my Disintegration, Prioska C. Juschka Fine Art, New York, NY
Immodest Mountain, Arlington Art Centre, Washington, DC
Pangaea’s Blanket (and the slowest Descent from Grace), Visual Arts Gallery, DePauw University, Greencastle, IN


GROUP EXHIBITIONS


2011
Disquieting Muses, Contemporary Art Centre of Thessaloniki, State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece
Nereden Nereye, Galeri Mana, Istanbul, turkey
Summer Group Exhibition, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY

2010
It Ain’t Fair 2010, OHWOW, Art Basel Miami Beach, Exhibition design by Rafael de Cardenas, Miami, FL
Art on Paper 2010:the 41st Exhibition, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC
Run and Tell That!, curated by Eric Gleason and David Prince, Syracuse University Art Galleries, Syracuse, NY
Does the City Munster Matter? Centre for Contemporary Art, Munster, Germany
The Silk Road, Saatchi gallery, London in Lille, France
Paper, Fred Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL
Does the Angle Between Two walls Have a Happy Ending, curated by Ishmael Randall Weeks, Federica Schiavo Gallery, Rome, Italy
From the Incubator: Sculpture Space, Islip Art Museum, East Islip, NY

2009
Disorientation II, curated by jack Persekian, Manarat Al Saadiyat, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Fresh from Chelsea,University of Florida University Galleries, Gainsville, FL
Inside Walls, curated by Ryan Muller, 432 South 5th, Brooklyn NY
New Weather, University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, FL
Next Wave Festival, curated by Dan Cameron, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY
In the Between, curated by Suzanne Egeran, Tabanlioglu Architects, Istanbul, Turkey
Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue? Watou 2009, curated by Joost Declercq, Watou, Belgium
Invitational Exhibition of Visual Arts, Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY
Sharjah Biennial 9, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Unveiled: New Art from the Middle East, The Saatchi Gallery, London, UK

2008
Anthology, Otero Plassart, Los Angeles, CA
Black Bile, Red Humour:Aspects of Melancholy, curated by Oliver Zybok, Center for Arts and Culture, Montabaur, Germany
The Station 2008, curated by Shamim Momin and Nate Lowman, Midblock East, Miami, FL

2007
Agitation and Repose, curated by Gregory Volk and Sabine Russ, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York, NY
Bloosy Meridian, curated by David Hunt, Galerie Michael Janssen, Berlin, Germany

2006
AIM 26, Bronx Museum, Bronx, NY
Mutiny, curated by David Hunt, The Happy Lion, Los Angeles, CA
The Sanctuary and the Scrum, curated by David hunt, Black and White Gallery, New York, NY