Diana Al-Hadid. Spun of the Limits of My Lonely Waltz, 2006; wood, polystyrene, plaster, fiberglass, pigment; 72 x 64 x 64 in.

The sculptures and installations of artist Diana Al-Hadid are “propositions for an imaginary world,” ambiguous works that often reference themes of self, place, and history. Recently the artist has drawn upon imagery from her birth city of Syria by recreating the Aleppo citadel, a 10th century fortress and eventual Muslim holy site. Her new sculptures combine fiberglass and polystyrene to create ambitious structures that seem to be unearthed from afar. The artist was awarded a Sculpture Department Graduate Fellowship to attend Virginia Commonwealth University, where she received her MFA in sculpture. This month she is exhibiting with Priska Juschka Gallery in Williamsburg, NY; in spring of this year the artist participated in the Bronx Museum‘s Aim 26 (Artist in the Marketplace) program and exhibition, which was noted in an article in the Art in Review section of the New York Times (April 9, 2006).

Diana Al-Hadid. Record of a Mortal Universe, 2007; mixed media, 128 x 138 x 106 in.

Stepping into the Perry Rubenstein Gallery in New York City is a little like stumbling upon a musical shipwreck. Diana Al-Hadid has used plaster, fiberglass, wood, polystyrene, and cardboard to create a romantically ramshackled and dilapidated sculpture, Record of a Mortal Universe (2007), which is based on the phenomenon of a hero’s collapse. Sourcing religion, architecture, and physics, Al-Hadid’s pointed and varied references unfold within the work, from a grand staircase that leads to a decomposing Greek temple to an upside-down vaulted arch and melted pipe-organ pedals. A gramophone extends through a ring of decrepit temple columns and crumbling Gothic buttresses, making the sculpture seem as though it has appeared, tattered and torn, from the background of a painting by Hieronymus Bosch.

Record of a Mortal Universe also explores gravitational collapse, or the phenomenon of a massive body collapsing under its own weight. The sculpture sets up an engaging dichotomy in that the foundation’s materials, cardboard and melting resin, seem tenuous and unable to support such a gigantic mass. Yet the reference to Greek architecture and ruins suggests that this is somehow a solid structure that has been around for an untold number of years.

Al-Hadid is a Brooklyn-based, Syrian-born artist who graduated from the Virginia Commonwealth University in 2005. She participated in the Skowhegan residency this past summer, and her work will be at the Perry Rubenstein Gallery until the November 24, 2007.