Syrian-born artist Diana Al Hadid works in sculpture, installation and drawing. She is most renowned for erecting elaborate sculptures of architecture, such as towers and labyrinths in a state of near ruin.

Al Hadid’s practice takes an experimental approach with materials, such as cardboard, plywood, polystyrene, plaster, fibreglass and polymer gypsum. Her sculptures resemble and reconstruct various motifs, including Biblical and mythological narratives, Gothic architecture, Islamic ornamentation and advances in physics and astronomy. Her large-scale, imposing sculptures often appear both fragile and rigid, as though they were frozen at the cusp of collapse, caught between physical a nd temporal realms. Her drawings complement these works.

Raised and currently residing in the United States, Al Hadid references the rise and fall of ideologies and civilisations and explores cultural hybridity and incidental invention through experimentation. With fragments of Ottoman domes, pipe organs, grand pianos, Corinthian pillars and grand staircases, the sculptures traverse time, and create otherworldly structures that exist in a present-day context.

Al Hadid’s work has been exhibited in several museum exhibitions throughout the United States, Greece, Germany and Spain. Her work has also been showcased in exhibitions in the United Kingdom, Turkey, France and the United Arab Emirates, including the Sharjah Biennial.