Diana Al-Hadid
NGV Triennial

Diana Al-Hadid’s work explores the space between the mystical and scientific through sculpture, wall reliefs and works on paper. Her work draws on historical frameworks that continue to influence culture today, taking inspiration from religious imagery, ancient manuscripts, female archetypes and folklore storytelling. Using various materials, Hadid creates large-scale sculptures that layer figurative, landscape and architectural elements. Her work is framed by a range of references from antiquity, cosmology, cartography and architecture, giving form to ghostly images.

Al-Hadid responds to the NGV’s ancient and medieval collections through her preferred materials of polymer gypsum, fibreglass, paint and gold leaf. Her work creates new narratives among both secular and religious works selected from the NGV Collection across three permanent collection galleries. Through their journey, audiences’ perceptions are reoriented spatially and narratively, as the installation emphasises what is known and unknown, hidden and revealed between art, collections and their audiences.