In the work of Syrian-born, American artist Diana Al-Hadid, how we give vision to time is the driver of her monumental installations. Rather than reproducing the exactitude of clocks, her work denotes how time is measured and felt—as Don DeLillo writes in The Body Artist, time becomes something more like itself, “sheer and bare, empty of shelter” as we experience the traces of the objects, figures, landscapes, and architecture that Al-Hadid imparts.
The designs for a water-clock preserved by the twelfth-century Islamic polymath Ismail Al-Jazari inform the blueprint of Al-Hadid’s sculpture The Time Being (2022), a public commission for the most recent edition of the FRONT Triennial for Contemporary Art in Cleveland. Against the backdrop of a scaled replica of the Palmyra Arch of Triumph within the city’s Syrian Cultural Garden, the installation’s spiralling architecture responds to the conditions of the outdoor site.
![](https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_02.jpg?w=2560&h=1828&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666685028&s=f5bf9b1247c7ffae23ed7a403299a24f 2560w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_02.jpg?w=2048&h=1462&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666685028&s=eb3fed8901383f2dec08cc1b5b32463d 2048w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_02.jpg?w=1920&h=1371&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666685028&s=642edb239715e3937abd77541853857e 1920w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_02.jpg?w=1536&h=1097&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666685028&s=038b7b2ffb07ee1354f195fb8be90a87 1536w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_02.jpg?w=1280&h=914&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666685028&s=fc92664f44cf0703b1af58caa6f5f9f0 1280w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_02.jpg?w=1024&h=731&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666685028&s=14d8f94c60dc1c3fd3fdc14fa0a37115 1024w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_02.jpg?w=768&h=548&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666685028&s=be7b1105aaac72bd336056b2d1543fc5 768w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_02.jpg?w=512&h=365&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666685028&s=d58b14d36f7c89b435b84958a8abb077 512w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_02.jpg?w=256&h=182&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666685028&s=850855a2a0ecf87b89a46e33ecda0f6d 256w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_02.jpg?w=128&h=91&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666685028&s=13b5277a4bfba55459c1aaad626d34bc 128w)
The Time Being, steel, polymer gypsum, fiberglass, plexiglas, copper leaf, and jasmine, dimensions vary, comissioned by FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art in partnership with the Syrian Cultural Garden Association
Photo by Jerry Birchfield
![](https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_03.jpg?w=2560&h=1828&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666687240&s=8c5c9dae9dda51c8d063d80efe4eaad1 2560w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_03.jpg?w=2048&h=1462&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666687240&s=2695b7d3ba0b015ff03b47f5a0fe6d10 2048w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_03.jpg?w=1920&h=1371&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666687240&s=c59d697206bf534d5c7d7f516c985aa1 1920w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_03.jpg?w=1536&h=1097&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666687240&s=b7d711683b3926b7654e23d9999c695c 1536w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_03.jpg?w=1280&h=914&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666687240&s=53f9df3d8c7a570becd7539b39b9da44 1280w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_03.jpg?w=1024&h=731&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666687240&s=4df158f4e00a0ae0b42c6e26c6c3b927 1024w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_03.jpg?w=768&h=548&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666687240&s=2a278369ad8a71648ae5fb6de8489b78 768w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_03.jpg?w=512&h=365&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666687240&s=5a041e00105d5f7f9c87d63183a55eb6 512w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_03.jpg?w=256&h=182&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666687240&s=f203302a1b070d615185e951aba8c341 256w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_03.jpg?w=128&h=91&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666687240&s=b7d8422f5a79e88e67090d2ee9ef05f0 128w)
The Time Being, steel, polymer gypsum, fiberglass, plexiglas, copper leaf, and jasmine, dimensions vary, comissioned by FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art in partnership with the Syrian Cultural Garden Association
Photo by Jerry Birchfield
![](https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Al-Jazaris-Candle-Clock.jpg?w=1536&h=1959&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666942428&s=2f247720f8983ffef48a62dab528e9e2 1536w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Al-Jazaris-Candle-Clock.jpg?w=1280&h=1633&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666942428&s=395137414a59f5f915b1e00a2e899933 1280w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Al-Jazaris-Candle-Clock.jpg?w=1024&h=1306&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666942428&s=d07af3fdc5cbd9cc86de135acee6755b 1024w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Al-Jazaris-Candle-Clock.jpg?w=768&h=979&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666942428&s=4c8cfc03e23e1785213ba15bbd6e5281 768w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Al-Jazaris-Candle-Clock.jpg?w=512&h=653&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666942428&s=baf2c63aae476de5519451542ff9f7b0 512w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Al-Jazaris-Candle-Clock.jpg?w=256&h=326&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666942428&s=98bfea298c95c1848224c518913a3f70 256w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Al-Jazaris-Candle-Clock.jpg?w=128&h=163&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666942428&s=4ce9bd146b79058f4743806872616617 128w)
Reference image for Al-Jazari's water clock, courtesy of Diana Al-Hadid
Source unknown
Al-Hadid’s intervention arises from the centerpiece of the garden, an Arabic fountain that is transformed by the addition of a towering armature that ascends from the existing octagonal geometry. Thin veils of material (once wet and pliable, now solid) compose the form, painted to appear as oxidized copper leaf in alternating segments of verdigris and glinting metal. The tiers of the exposed vessel are adorned with pools of ink, hands suspended in gestures of writing and making, in reference to the figurative components of Al-Jazari’s clock—chief among them a statue of a scribe whose pen tracks the minutes as they pass.
While the functional mechanisms of the clock are rendered immobile in Al-Hadid’s rendition, the conventional markers of time are replaced with organic growth. In place of the hour hand, the only visible dial of measure in The Time Being is the growth of jasmine plants, the national flower of Syria, which wrap around the sculpture, supported by the water that springs from the fountain’s basin. Over the course of the exhibition, tendrils of the plant attach to fragments of the piece as they climb, flowering to emit a faint indolic scent that attaches the installation to our senses beyond what is visible. Time is read, but it is also experienced as it is written.
Al-Hadid’s script proposes a clock of memory that extends to the more personal ways we recall time—triggers of sensation, of place, of how the light hits just there, of the softness or rigidity of sand or stone beneath our feet. What remains from Al-Jazari’s engineering is a reliance on water and an attention to how things react to the circumstances of a prescribed environment. Each component of the ‘clock’ is faithful to material; water flows, plants grow, the sun catches on the surface of the open-air form, and gravity holds it in place. Perhaps most fittingly, while most scents are replicated by the combination of other essences, jasmine is the only flower not fugitive in the making of perfume. It performs as itself even when translated to another medium, just as Al-Hadid’s subjects are woven into being.
![](https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_05.jpg?w=2048&h=2867&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666688078&s=2770aa0bad8fbbbc710376975dfffab7 2048w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_05.jpg?w=1920&h=2687&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666688078&s=1bcee617344c1fe725b9b8b2b284d27f 1920w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_05.jpg?w=1536&h=2150&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666688078&s=a44f3db29badbce6cb16ee7fe45255cd 1536w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_05.jpg?w=1280&h=1791&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666688078&s=f5589673788ea0f42def9dacc8dc0485 1280w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_05.jpg?w=1024&h=1433&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666688078&s=bf86b8988080d07b750af103538f6b47 1024w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_05.jpg?w=768&h=1075&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666688078&s=0f2cf48290f585c39456cafeb6822ff3 768w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_05.jpg?w=512&h=716&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666688078&s=688b5483ae4f15cc872529a3e95669b2 512w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_05.jpg?w=256&h=358&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666688078&s=2c995bb98468266c663baf69d9b9b511 256w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_05.jpg?w=128&h=179&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666688078&s=2a4dec97008deab68364fcbcde644f62 128w)
The Time Being, steel, polymer gypsum, fiberglass, plexiglas, copper leaf, and jasmine, dimensions vary, comissioned by FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art in partnership with the Syrian Cultural Garden Association
Photo by Jerry Birchfield
![](https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/2_FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_05-copy.jpg?w=2048&h=2867&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666700484&s=ad4b73da5c89418d0607f565e1e4a1db 2048w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/2_FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_05-copy.jpg?w=1920&h=2687&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666700484&s=187e06945b77eef034857514df54326a 1920w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/2_FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_05-copy.jpg?w=1536&h=2150&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666700484&s=e9d2a15dc843237336d186a528ade6cb 1536w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/2_FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_05-copy.jpg?w=1280&h=1791&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666700484&s=ffde1bbbef92677945984699faac12fd 1280w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/2_FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_05-copy.jpg?w=1024&h=1433&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666700484&s=942bbcbd448f26726c31c168d60ff1ca 1024w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/2_FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_05-copy.jpg?w=768&h=1075&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666700484&s=7a9dd3ad5cc9ce4cc0efe26c8b17fc9e 768w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/2_FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_05-copy.jpg?w=512&h=716&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666700484&s=831d3cbcbdea88b5cee967e0540e8fb8 512w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/2_FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_05-copy.jpg?w=256&h=358&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666700484&s=d55473a5b4c1a157388a4b1459450aec 256w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/2_FieldStudioPhotography_Front2022_SyrianCulturalGarden_05-copy.jpg?w=128&h=179&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666700484&s=7ed7562aa7626e91c82dde417a095183 128w)
The Time Being, steel, polymer gypsum, fiberglass, plexiglas, copper leaf, and jasmine, dimensions vary, comissioned by FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art in partnership with the Syrian Cultural Garden Association
Photo by Jerry Birchfield
In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the weaver Arachne is transfigured into a spider after hiding depictions of Zeus’ abuses toward mortal women in her tapestries of maps. The limbs of the wood nymph Daphne, while attempting to escape the pursuit of Apollo, turn into the bark and leaves of the laurel tree. In this history, the species that compose the natural world are ascribed to the faults of women.
The Flemish primitive painter Hans Memling’s Allegory of Chastity (c. 1475) pictures the bodice of a female figure, her head bowed, hands interlaced at the waist, surrounded by the mouth of a volcanic mountain. What remains ambiguous is the action of the scene—a figure in process of emerging from or being entrapped by an enclosure of stone, the pair of lions in the foreground guarding either for protection or imprisonment. Given the reliance of Christian theology on the suppression of women’s desire, we can guess the latter.
Al-Hadid’s first interpretation of the painting culminated in the monumental sculpture Citadel (2017–18), a hollowed silhouette of a woman framed by the base of an embankment whose porous mass extends like a root system toward the ground. Her face is vacant of features, delineated instead by two severe lines like one would find in the initial sketch of a portrait artist, that indicate her gaze remains lowered. Yet in contrast to the demure painting, the massive scale of the work allows for her downcast eyes to stare straight into those of the viewer below.
![](https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Hans-Memling-allegory-chastity.jpg?w=512&h=631&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666689926&s=a0b800043a5c4a330503451be3204de9 512w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Hans-Memling-allegory-chastity.jpg?w=256&h=315&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666689926&s=a6109d6fff7a64c87f4b4f7acb878888 256w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Hans-Memling-allegory-chastity.jpg?w=128&h=157&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666689926&s=ba35fd04ea579e953fbffe726f212896 128w)
Hans Memling, Allegory of Chastity, 1480, oil on wood
![](https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/CameronBlaylock7.jpg?w=1536&h=1024&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666684748&s=83d945b871ce1324159eb5549956c95a 1536w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/CameronBlaylock7.jpg?w=1280&h=853&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666684748&s=7e80bcf761cbf8c5f9327b019e9c24f1 1280w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/CameronBlaylock7.jpg?w=1024&h=682&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666684748&s=05a8b6145116f3c777a120f06ef2b504 1024w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/CameronBlaylock7.jpg?w=768&h=512&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666684748&s=e30d8b5c441b349ab318f8044dc24e1f 768w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/CameronBlaylock7.jpg?w=512&h=341&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666684748&s=9bc4db94f693633a94dc9c9589724dfc 512w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/CameronBlaylock7.jpg?w=256&h=170&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666684748&s=43fd3a99639fd8da261710f13d49424c 256w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/CameronBlaylock7.jpg?w=128&h=85&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666684748&s=045d58949816f0dbee6f164bc558afb8 128w)
Diana Al-Hadid, Citadel, 2017-2018, steel, polymer gypsum, fiberglass, paint, aluminum, bronze. Location: Madison Square Park
Photo by Cameron Blaylock
When installed upon the green scape of a lawn, the work appears to swell from the ground like a tangle of vines; when situated within a public fountain, the form is reflected in a black pool of glass in perfect symmetry. In each reprise of the work, which adapts and responds to its context, the conception of virtue in Memling’s portrait is detached and reforged in Al-Hadid’s portrayal—from the feminized guise of purity (as a woman frozen and entrapped by nature) toward a faith in substance (the malleability and mutability of earth’s terrain and our place within it).
In an evolution of the piece, Allegory by a Thread (2020), installed at the Sint-Janshostpitaal in Brugge, home to some of Memling’s most important works, elements of the architecture’s structure and gothic ornamentation infiltrate the setting of Al-Hadid’s commanding figure, positioning her as a type of throned Madonna. Hollowed and hallowed collapse.
A series of filaments loosely tether her torso to a delicately carved surface of an oriental carpet, made of polymer gypsum tinted with black, red, and gold pigments. Colors of the mantle, of different temperatures and fluidities of lava, constitute the pattern of the rug—a form first woven to mimic a garden, a facsimile of nature to view in winter. Here, Al-Hadid weaves a garden for the woman born from the reservoir of fire—a reminder of her origins transformed into a fragment of décor that she witnesses and controls.
![](https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/1360_Allegory-by-a-Thread_0027_photo-credit-Dominique-Provost.jpg?w=3072&h=2511&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666942230&s=9798a9a9ab234908e07dd57dfd8dcd41 3072w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/1360_Allegory-by-a-Thread_0027_photo-credit-Dominique-Provost.jpg?w=2560&h=2093&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666942230&s=f54e9592a6f38ee8fb08f0ef1613bcbd 2560w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/1360_Allegory-by-a-Thread_0027_photo-credit-Dominique-Provost.jpg?w=2048&h=1674&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666942230&s=b5ca3c4fed311bd23a37ca9c61e599f0 2048w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/1360_Allegory-by-a-Thread_0027_photo-credit-Dominique-Provost.jpg?w=1920&h=1569&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666942230&s=b517d23702b6cd53a41da5c80fac1d12 1920w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/1360_Allegory-by-a-Thread_0027_photo-credit-Dominique-Provost.jpg?w=1536&h=1255&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666942230&s=47cf41f173125bf404afa980c0989b01 1536w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/1360_Allegory-by-a-Thread_0027_photo-credit-Dominique-Provost.jpg?w=1280&h=1046&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666942230&s=558af718a253b0feea48e4d6b6bbcaf9 1280w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/1360_Allegory-by-a-Thread_0027_photo-credit-Dominique-Provost.jpg?w=1024&h=837&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666942230&s=c0c7795d77fcba768111c012fc9421d9 1024w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/1360_Allegory-by-a-Thread_0027_photo-credit-Dominique-Provost.jpg?w=768&h=627&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666942230&s=95bae33114d61c2884561e629b3859cc 768w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/1360_Allegory-by-a-Thread_0027_photo-credit-Dominique-Provost.jpg?w=512&h=418&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666942230&s=74261a3d4cdd6e11b3fcfea30032ebf2 512w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/1360_Allegory-by-a-Thread_0027_photo-credit-Dominique-Provost.jpg?w=256&h=209&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666942230&s=c4bd54443b472c23a5f5cb2bd4d32997 256w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/1360_Allegory-by-a-Thread_0027_photo-credit-Dominique-Provost.jpg?w=128&h=104&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666942230&s=be11c6676a70e68556393c76ee0d36fb 128w)
Diana Al-Hadid, Allegory by a Thread, 2020
Photo by Dominique Provost
![](https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Magmatic_Photo-credit_-Trond-A-Isaksen.jpg?w=1920&h=1279&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666700178&s=cdcb38fd3a0a37b55b19eae233d12bc3 1920w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Magmatic_Photo-credit_-Trond-A-Isaksen.jpg?w=1536&h=1023&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666700178&s=53e0321787b5902da0c395c4bcf51cc4 1536w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Magmatic_Photo-credit_-Trond-A-Isaksen.jpg?w=1280&h=853&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666700178&s=ab16bf2f839329c749bbf92fd28b2934 1280w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Magmatic_Photo-credit_-Trond-A-Isaksen.jpg?w=1024&h=682&q=82&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666700178&s=50e0a5867c62d0efce7c1fbea29a71ac 1024w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Magmatic_Photo-credit_-Trond-A-Isaksen.jpg?w=768&h=511&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666700178&s=f0207fbc6a43b4e8f688fbb354d66a35 768w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Magmatic_Photo-credit_-Trond-A-Isaksen.jpg?w=512&h=341&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666700178&s=f2d9f9ec28e1a13e2f8e9f78f3d1ca7b 512w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Magmatic_Photo-credit_-Trond-A-Isaksen.jpg?w=256&h=170&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666700178&s=609aff27e31f4e03c4c8132ffcb00b7d 256w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Magmatic_Photo-credit_-Trond-A-Isaksen.jpg?w=128&h=85&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666700178&s=06bb54c0f3e341b42aea897c9becb087 128w)
Diana Al-Hadid, Magmatic, 2019, bronze, polymer gypsum, fiberglass, steel, pigment
Photo by Trond A Isaksen
Volcanos endure as one of the few phenomena where the center of the earth comes out to greet us. At the time of an eruption, the boundary that designates what belongs to the interior versus the surface is momentarily broken (the same can be said of people). In Magmatic (2019), recently on view in Al-Hadid’s solo exhibition Archives of Longing at the Henry Art Gallery, that which is disguised by the mountain in Memling’s painting is made present—a woman’s severed limbs fashioned of bronze, gypsum, fiberglass, and steel.
The patina of the legs, which appear to melt into the support of a white plinth, is corroded—a process that unfolds when water and alloy are exposed to one another and left to develop. Like living photographs, marks of phases are embedded in Al-Hadid’s materials. Her attitude toward form adheres to a logic that exists outside of chronological time, a patriarchal structure derived from lineage, in favor of the cyclical. Across the artist’s sculptural vignettes, the rotating hands of a clock fail to capture how hours pass. They belong to a different language of revolution—one that calculates moments in present culture where our epoch meets those that have come before, and where they will unite again in a yet unknown future.
While pausing writing to read a text by Mona Eltahawy on the revolution unfolding in Iran at present, a quote by Ursula K. Le Guin echoes the sentiments of Al-Hadid’s work, “We are volcanoes. When we women offer our experience as our truth, as human truth, all the maps change. There are new mountains.”
"We are volcanoes. When we women offer our experience as our truth, as human truth, all the maps change. There are new mountains."
Quoted in “When Girls Erupt” by Mona Eltahawy
![](https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Stephanie-Cristello_Photo-Michelle-Reid_2022-08-08-115728_qfgw.jpg?w=768&h=960&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1659959848&s=4b3a4fef8146197e0ba42f7b5534ad79 768w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Stephanie-Cristello_Photo-Michelle-Reid_2022-08-08-115728_qfgw.jpg?w=512&h=640&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1659959848&s=5ef2b3acd54dc535b30c67580eb2605d 512w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Stephanie-Cristello_Photo-Michelle-Reid_2022-08-08-115728_qfgw.jpg?w=256&h=320&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1659959848&s=da3c2cb3f2d988b6d40dd26a5c50f0b4 256w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/Stephanie-Cristello_Photo-Michelle-Reid_2022-08-08-115728_qfgw.jpg?w=128&h=160&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1659959848&s=e93e5d671fa03e24d82a2f856c53f6e3 128w)
Stephanie Cristello is a contemporary art critic, curator, and author based in Chicago, IL. Her work focuses on artists who critically engage with the image and its role in visual culture. Through the lens of Classics and mythology, her diachronic writing practice concentrates on the intersection of ancient narratives and conceptual practice post-1960.
Her research is specifically motivated by contemporary works that interrogate how language, text, and the use of poetic devices influence and shape the cultural and historical structures that surround us.
She has worked internationally across a variety of platforms, including exhibitions, panels and symposia, editorial and publishing, and has contributed to numerous exhibition catalogues nationally and internationally.
![](https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/SmHeadshot-photographed-by-Diego-Flores-1.jpg?w=512&h=767&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666706379&s=1d8eb2b8192d9260f49cfa7106cd2c67 512w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/SmHeadshot-photographed-by-Diego-Flores-1.jpg?w=256&h=383&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666706379&s=55f401919a2894ef3e76386c48aff223 256w, https://optimise2.assets-servd.host/fluffy-tenrec/production/SmHeadshot-photographed-by-Diego-Flores-1.jpg?w=128&h=191&q=60&fm=jpg&fit=crop&dm=1666706379&s=bab6bc7d7859fe9dceff800a1142da08 128w)
Diana Al-Hadid is known for her practice that examines the historical frameworks and perspectives that continue to shape discourse on culture and materials today.
With a practice spanning sculpture, wall reliefs, and works on paper, Al-Hadid weaves together enigmatic narratives that draw inspiration from both ancient and modern civilizations.
The artist's rich allegorical constructions are born from art historical religious imagery, ancient manuscripts, female archetypes, and folkloric storytelling frameworks.
Al-Hadid's works are included in collections such as the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.