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Record of a Mortal Universe

October 19, 2007- November 21, 2007

Diana Al-Hadid

Perry Rubenstein Gallery

534 W 24th St

Perry Rubenstein Gallery is pleased to present Record of a Mortal Universe, a large-scale sculpture by Diana Al-Hadid. Al-Hadid constructs sculptural installations combining materials such polystyrene, plaster, and fiberglass in order to create a narrative object. The seemingly impossible constructions evoke a feeling of instability and unrest that provides a sharp contrast to her intricate process and the immediacy of her sturdy materials. Sourcing religion, architecture, and physics, Al-Hadid's pointed and varied references unfold within the work to meld the universal with the personal. Cultural iconography gives way to clues about her biography; the works interlace place, history and self. The sculptures result in a fictitious narrative—an imagined world—that is as haunting as it is enchanting.

Record of a Mortal Universe is based upon the event of a hero's collapse. Plaster, fiberglass, and cast plastic envelop a complex wood and steel armature to form a grand staircase that leads to a decomposing Greek temple. Classical architectural devices are deconstructed; the vaulted arch is upside down, Corinthian columns have melted away. A theoretical gramophone extends through a ring of melted temple columns supported by gothic buttresses, suggesting the fabled hero's ascension and ultimate fall from grace. Rather than playing a record, the gramophone simulates the playing of fictive sounds of water ripples (sound waves) made by the fall of the hero from the top of the stairs. The illustrious gramophone is left to capture and echo the conjured sounds of the protagonist's demise.

One of the integral ideas explored in the work is gravitational collapse— the occurrence of a massive body collapsing under its own weight. Just as the Big Bang started a cosmological expansion, theories postulate that gravitational collapse could cause a contraction, presenting a symmetric view of the ultimate fate of the universe. In Al-Hadid's rendering, the hero and the universe become the same force in a sense; the universe becomes mortal, having a body with a measurable beginning and end.

Al-Hadid was born in Aleppo, Syria and raised in Cleveland Ohio. She received an MFA in sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University, a BFA in sculpture and a BA in Art History from Kent State University. She has done numerous residencies, most recently the Skowhegan School for Painting and Sculpture this past summer. Exhibitions include AIM 26 at the Bronx Museum of Arts (2006); Blood Meridian at Michael Janssen in Berlin curated by David Hunt (2007); and Agitation and Repose, curated by Gregory Volk and Sabine Russ, at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York, NY (2007). Al-Hadid lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

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Location   Gallery Perry Rubenstein Gallery Address 534 W 24th St New York (Chelsea) NY, 10011 United States Phone 212-627-8000 Fax 212-627-6336 Hours Tue-Sat 10-6 (Summer hours: Mon-Fri 10-6)

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