Here are a few ideas from Diana Al-Hadid's work that could apply to our final project: - Exploring boundaries and how we define spaces/places through architecture, sculpture, or experience. Her work challenges separations between interior/exterior, private/public. - Using materials in innovative ways to create surfaces that suggest erosion or instability while being constructed in an additive process. - Referencing art history, science, and mythology but radically recontextualizing and reassembling formal elements into open-ended narratives. - Leaving works open to uncertainty and ambiguity rather than resolving everything. Her sculptures hover between real and imagined. - Fragmenting or distorting recognizable forms like architecture or the

1. What backgrounds or inspirations or INFLUENCES do you
draw from? Are they your own? (Does it matter if they are your own?)
● Miles: Watching TV, listening to music while I draw. If I hear or see something cool i
incorporate it!
● Eric: Things I like/dislike….and experiences/emotions about things.
● Daniel: Video games, books i read, movies I see, MEDIA.
● Sara: Friends, people around me, who I interact with.
● Lauren: Other people’s art!
● Birthday-Britt: NATURE. It just like calms me.
● Jov: When I see a painting, or something cool I re-create it and make it my own. In 8th
grade art class, we got to re-create a Picasso, but change it.
● Corina: My own background, my ethnicity, and the things I like (food from Asian cuisines)
Flowers. I like flowers.
● Moh: I usually draw cartoons, I use google images to help me draw it, but with my own
style.
● Alex: Social media….i mean, i most just draw memes.
● .

2. What backgrounds or inspirations do you draw from? Are they your
own? (Does it matter if they are your own?)
● Elianny: My experiences and emotions/feelings dictate the way I make my art. For example, if
something happens to me I will work it out in my art.
● Eli: The people I look up to and who have taught me as I’ve grown up. My dad and mom. My mom
can feel bad sometimes but she always stays strong, and she’s always there for us.
● Dom: Music. It gets me in a certain mood, gives me a certain vibe.
● Ros: The idea of doing well, and being well. It inspires me to do better. Like to be the ideal version of
myself.
● Nate: Friends. The people that you hang out with are the ones that influence you a lot. They can
introduce you to new things, you can learn new lingo, making you speak differently. They can make
you work harder, they can make you stop liking something. If a friend is going through something, I
can help them with it.
● Freddie:The people I surround myself with. If you want new inspiration, you need some new
experiences, that may be uncomfortable or new. It makes you grow as a person.
● Sums: This question is SO….tough. The struggles I face and the people around me. It’s a LOT of
things, it all goes into the art that you make.
● Imani: (eventually)
● Kozak: Making my family proud. Making Humanity Proud (does this HELP other people in some
way?)

3. What is a City that you feel a personal/historical/spiritual connection to?
Breanna: Yaoundé, Cameroon. SUCH a good vibe, even though there’s economic issues.
Also, there’s people out and about. And the FOOD!
Daniel: WARSAW, Poland. I was sleepy that day, but the art and street art, and beauty of
the parks and buildings. Odd buildings. The Bubble Mall (you’ll never find it though)
WICKA-WICKA! Old San Juan, so many colors, and the people and the vibes, and it was
everything.
Chris: Atlixco Puebla, old school Spanish farms, and a wall (Convento de San Fran)
historical clay homes in Puebla
JOV!: San Juan, this mysterious monument with obelisk-esque architecture.
Sara: Somewhere in Russia….with trolleys….an abandoned town. Old ruined buildings, old
Soviet-style architecture.
Eric: ORLANDO! Family vacations, very suburban. It MIGHT be better than NYC.
Miles: FRANCE, (MIles is a Francophile), Language...and other stuff.
Briana: Buenos Aires in Santo Domingo, DR….
SPIRITUAL CITIES!!! Mecca, Easter Island (Rapa Nui), Machu Picchu, Jerusalem,

4. What is a City that you feel a
personal/historical/spiritual connection to?
ELI and: NYC, specifically Bronx and upper Manhattan
ELIANNY: Specifically Harlem, and Hackensack (family!!!)
Nate: Westwood, Chicago (I lived there until mid-7th grade)
Dom: London, when I went there last year for vacation. There’s a lot of young
people, very free, lots of stuff to do.
Sums: QUEENS! It’s so diverse. I think of a lot of colors. Specifically Jackson
Heights
Imani: Bronx and Uptown!
Rosandris: Santo Domingo! I don’t go often, but there’s a strong personal
connection.
Freddie: Copenhagen, a colorful town, close to the water (Baltic Sea).
.

6. History of Bronx Museum
“The Bronx Museum of the Arts is a contemporary art museum that
connects diverse audiences to the urban experience through its permanent
collection, special exhibitions, and education programs. Reflecting the
borough's dynamic communities, the Museum is the crossroad where artists,
local residents, national and international visitors meet.” - From the Bronx
Museum website.
Manuel Mendive’s Nature,Spirit and Body and Randy H. Goodman’s Iran: Women Only are both
showing there.

7. What is
“Delirious
Matter?”
● Eric: Without the “delirious” adjective,
the matter would just be the original
state of something. This is pushed
away from its original understanding.
● Wicka: Someone that’s not in the right
mind, and not thinking straight.
○ Elon Musk thinks we’re living in a simulation
(Matrix Style).
○ Religion challenges us to think about our
reality, why we’re here.
○ You can never really KNOW the truth….the
questions remain.
● Araceli: Lots of emotion with these
words, I think of someone insane or
fun or crazy.
○ Sleep, writing a story, reading, TV, Movies,
video games, music, SOC!

8. What is
“Delirious
Matter?”
● Sums: “illusional spirit through
materials”
● Levy: If “delirious” is confusion
caused by intoxication, then this is a
thing that causes delirium.
● Elianny: Like a confused reality,
with things that are out of the norm.
● Nate: Like a disturbed base, like her
sculptures that all look like they
could be real things, but they’re not
….they’re…..an illusion? (thanks
Sums!!)
○ We can escape from our current reality
through videogames, travel, movies,
imagination, drugs.
○ The only escape from reality is death
(damn, Eli.)

9. Image
...
Title: Graphite on Leak
Materials: Bronze
Date/Location: 2010

10. The Diana Al Hadid Exhibit
“The sculptural work of Diana Al-Hadid often refers to boundaries as a way to challenge
preconceived notions of how one defines and experiences space. Drawing from an array
of art-historical and scientific references, Al-Hadid’s work treads carefully between the
imagined and the real, to address the tension between interior and exterior, belonging and
alienation, the ruin and the yet-to-be-completed… he centerpiece of Diana Al-Hadid:
Delirious Matter at the Bronx Museum will be the monumental sculpture Nolli’s Orders
(2012), which references Giambattista Nolli’s landmark 1748 map of Rome, the first of its
kind to show the public spaces of the city. In it, publically accessible buildings are shown as
transparent; private structures are rendered as solid.” - From the Bronx Museum Website.

11. Image
Title:In Mortal Repose
Materials: Bronze, cast concrete
Date/Location: 2011

12. Initial Reactions…
● Breana: When a woman is
slouching waiting for a man on
a bed (#HeteroNormative),
sexually.
○ Chris: she could just be
chilling on the couch.
● JOVA! : it’s a dripping woman.
Slouching but melting.
● Eric: The figure seems idle,
doing nothing. She’s wasting
away with time.
Title:In Mortal Repose
Materials: Bronze, cast concrete
Date/Location: 2011

13. Initial Reactions…
● Imani: It looks like a woman in
a casual, relaxed pose.
● Eli: It’s like it’s bleeding or
melting.
● Freddie: Reminds me of the
Graphite on Leak sculpture.
Because the materials is similar
and there’s those human body-
drips.
● Dom: It’s kinda dark,
depressing, getting some AHS
vibes from it.
● Elianny: it’s like she’s
disappearing, decaying.
● .
● .
Title:In Mortal Repose
Materials: Bronze, cast concrete
Date/Location: 2011

14. Image
Title:In Mortal Repose
Materials: Bronze, cast concrete
Date/Location: 2011
Made using the traditional lost-wax casting process and
elevated by a grand plinth, this impressive bronze
sculpture is disarmingly unmonumental in character.
Traditional bronze statues typically depict a male leader
in midoration or a commanding seated dignitary, honored
for all posterity. In Mortal Repose, as the title
suggests, instead shows a casually reclining figure,
seemingly impermanent. The female figure in
contemporary dress is melting into her imposing
perch; her bare feet have slid to the ground.
This was one of the artist's first large works intended for
display outdoors, a dramatic claim for female
representation and an allusion to its conspicuous
absence within the overwhelmingly male world of
public monuments. It is a clear precursor to Synonym
(2017–18), a sculpture of a barely present female body
on an equally ghostly plinth, several editions of which are
situated throughout Madison Square Park. (Plaque at
New York Gallery)

15. Title:In Mortal
Respose
Materials: Bronze,
cast concrete
Date/Location:
2011
OMG! RESPONSES???
● Elianny: the white one looks more
fragile than the other. The darker one
reminds me more of decay.
● Dom: the bronze on is more obviously a
woman han the fiberglass one.
● Rosandris: they both look like they’re
melting.
● Sums: They both compiment their
backgrounds. The Bronze one contrasts
with the gallery, and the fiberglass one
contrasts with the nature.
● Imani: It’s so simplistic that it’s making
fun of how sexualized the female form
is. It’s like automatically sexualized.
○ Elianny: the decay counteracts any
sexualization
● .
● .
Title: Synonym
Materials: Polymer
modified gypsum,
fiberglass, powder coated
aluminum, pigment
Date/Location: 2016

16. Title:In Mortal
Repose
Materials: Bronze,
cast concrete
Date/Location:
2011
OMG! RESPONSES???
● Sick-Lauren: They both have the
same effect of dripping.
● Eric: the bronze one is held up by a
pedestal, the fiberglass one is its own
structure of melting.
● Sara: the bronze looks more sturdy.
The fiberglass one looks fragile.
● Miles: They’re opposite colors!
● Breana: The fiberglass one is
beautiful, the color matches the
natural surroundings. The bronze is
good for its environment.
● JOVA!: I’m excited about the outdoor
one. That bronze one looks boring.
● Miles: they look like they’re made by
different artists!
Title: Synonym
Materials: Polymer
modified gypsum,
fiberglass, powder coated
aluminum, pigment
Date/Location: 2016

18. Image
...

19. Image
...

20. Image
...
Title: Nolli’s Orders
Materials: polymer gypsum, fiberglass, steel, wood,
polystyrene, plaster, aluminum foil, pigment
Date/Location: 2012
Initial Reactions…
● Rosandris: The bottom looks more
solid, and the top is more detailed.
○ Elianny: It looks like there’s
more materials at the bottom.
● Imani:It looks like it was a lot of
work. It’s really complicated. The
bodies look like they’re in pain.
They’re laying down like they don’t
care about anything, but they’re
tense. It’s almost like there’s clouds
in this.
● Dom: It looks like a civilization
where people live. Like a forest.
● Eli: There’s more than one person
on this, they’re laying down. It
seems tense.
● .
● .

21. Image
...
Title: Nolli’s Orders
Materials: polymer gypsum, fiberglass, steel, wood,
polystyrene, plaster, aluminum foil, pigment
Date/Location: 2012
Initial Reactions…
● JOVA: Reminds me of a Chinese
building, the way the angles meet.
But it’s destroyed, like she made it
look broken on purpose.
● Chris:It reminds me of Mt.
Olympus, like the people on it are
gods lounging around.
● Sara: I thought of a wave, and
whales, and the structure looks a lot
like a building. The crumples look
like clouds.
● Brianna: I thought of an unfinished
building, but the human figures…?
● Daniel: It looks like a mansion to
me. It reminded me of the painting
with Adam reaching towards God
(creation of man at the sistine
chapel by Michelangelo). Breana
too!

22. Image
Al-Hadid delves into the interplay between solid
and void, transparency and opacity, and figure
and ground in this monumental sculpture, which
was inspired by an eighteenth-century map of Rome
by Giambattista Nolli, a detail of which is on display
nearby. The map differentiates between public and
private spaces, representing the way the city is
experienced.
The sculpture anchors the gallery like a Bernini
fountain in a Roman piazza, but evokes a distinctly
contemporary sense of irresolution and uncertainty.
From one perspective, the assembly seems
balanced and whole, but as the viewer moves
around it the bodies are revealed to be concave
shells, nearly slipping from their illogical perches.
The figures themselves are borrowed from Northern
Renaissance and Mannerist paintings, but the artist
has disentangled them from their traditional
communal poses. (Plaque at New York Gallery)
Title: Nolli’s Orders
Materials: polymer gypsum, fiberglass, steel, wood, polystyrene, plaster, aluminum foil, pigment
Date/Location: 2012

23. Image
...

24. Diana Al-Hadid:
Delirious Matter
Diana Al-Hadid (born 1981) is fascinated by boundaries-where something begins and ends and how we define or
belong to a place, be it through architecture, sculpture, or experience. The act of shaping the built environment is
implicitly responsive to the human body. Al-Hadid considers the human body a "container," a philosophical delineation of
self through which we trace boundaries and limits in order to better understand the world. Her evocative work stands as a
poetic challenge to such separations of interior from exterior, private from public.
The artist's large sculptures, panels, and drawings hover in an uncertain space between the real and imagined, two-
dimensional mark-making and three-dimensional sculpture, the ruin and the incomplete. Architectural structures are
fragmented and bodies are suggested, undefined, even melting. In her studio in Brooklyn, Al-Hadid manipulates
materials in innovative ways, resulting in surfaces that suggest erosion, but which are in fact made with a process
of controlled dripping that is entirely additive, a buildup of layers. She reinterprets source material from art history,
science, and myth, radically decontextualizing formal elements and reassembling them into open-ended narratives. This
interest in displacement stems in part from the artist's experience immigrating from her birthplace in Aleppo, Syria, to Ohio
at a young age, though uncertainty and the fragility of human-made constructs, both physical and psychological, pervade
contemporary life across the globe.
What ideas from this can we apply to our final project for this unit??

25. Image
AND THEN THERE’S ALL THESE
FUNKY ITALIAN PIECES….
HUH???
The Italian printmaker Giovanni Battista Piranesi, a collaborator
and often a rival of Giambattista Nolli, is known for his
antiquarian etchings of Roman landmarks. One such etching
is this view of the famous Piazza Navona, the site of the city
market for nearly four hundred years. The piazza, anchored by
the famous Fountain of the Four Rivers (1651) by Gian
Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), is an emblem of public space in
the Western world. Al-Hadid's imposing sculpture Nolli's
Orders, on display nearby, resembles such a fountain but lacks
a similarly direct nod to power, leaving one to wonder what
authority governs civic space today.
Piranesi is also known for fantastical aggregates of
monumental architecture and ruins-characterized by
dense layers of visual information, perspectival liberties,
and dizzying architectural voids—which resonate with
AlHadid's early work. (Plaque at New York Gallery)
Title: The Piazza Navona, Rome, above the ruins of the Circus of Domitian, the Church of Sant'Agnese to the right, and Bernini's fountain in the center, from Views of
Rome
Materials: Paper, and Ink.
Date/Location: 1720-1778 by Giovanni Battista Piranesi

26. Image
AND THEN THERE’S ALL THESE
FUNKY ITALIAN PIECES….
HUH???
In contrast to Nolli's map, also on display in
this gallery, Antonio Tempesta's depiction of
Rome focuses on built exteriors. There is no
distinction between a public church and a
private house: both are rendered as
architectural buildings with concealed
interiors that contrast with the streets.
(Plaque at New York Gallery)
Title:Plan of the City of Rome: Part 9 with Piazza Navona, the Campo di Fiori and the Sant'Onofrio
Materials: Paper, and Ink.
Date/Location: 1555-1630 by Antonio Tempesta

27. Image
In 1748, Italian architect and surveyor Giambattista Nolli
published a large map of Rome, a section of which is
reproduced here. With this map, Nolli established a
cartographic standard for accuracy and detail that has yet
to be surpassed. He also revolutionized mapmaking by
graphically distinguishing public- from private use architectural
spaces: white areas or voids indicate civic arenas such as
churches, theaters, courtyards, porticoes of buildings, and
stairways to major palaces, while private structures are
rendered in contrasting solid black.
Al-Hadid was drawn to the map for this depiction of the
"relationship of public and private and mass and void and
where we establish boundaries as we navigate the city."
She admired Nolli's subversion of the conventional delineation
between interior and exterior. The mapmaker instead conveyed
a more experiential account of the urban fabric, visually
equating, for example, the space of a church with the street, by
depicting both as open, white areas. (Plaque at New York
Gallery)
Title: Detail of La Topografia di Roma
Materials: Ink, and paper.
Date/Location: By Giambattista Nolli in 1751-1756

28. Image
In 1748, Italian architect and surveyor Giambattista Nolli
published a large map of Rome, a section of which is
reproduced here. With this map, Nolli established a
cartographic standard for accuracy and detail that has yet
to be surpassed. He also revolutionized mapmaking by
graphically distinguishing public- from private use architectural
spaces: white areas or voids indicate civic arenas such as
churches, theaters, courtyards, porticoes of buildings, and
stairways to major palaces, while private structures are
rendered in contrasting solid black.
Al-Hadid was drawn to the map for this depiction of the
"relationship of public and private and mass and void and
where we establish boundaries as we navigate the city."
She admired Nolli's subversion of the conventional delineation
between interior and exterior. The mapmaker instead conveyed
a more experiential account of the urban fabric, visually
equating, for example, the space of a church with the street, by
depicting both as open, white areas. (Plaque at New York
Gallery)

29. Image
Dear P3:
Artwork MUST have a connection to the
original inspiration….even if it’s a little
detail or something.
For example, the meaning of the map and
the meaning of the artwork are like two
paragraphs that have little to do with each
other in the same essay.
OKAY, the work is a bit connected through
the idea of “open space” and she kind of
explained HOW she got inspired by the
original map.
BUT, these are more aesthetically similar
than conceptually similar.
And hey, we still don’t see much of a
connection.

30. Image
Dear P2:
It doesn’t matter if we (the viewer) doesn’t
see a connection. Whether or not it looks
the same, the artist saw that map and she
was inspired to make some art.
Even if the “two paragraphs” have little to
do with each other, Al-Hadid didn’t “write”
the first paragraph here….It’s like you’re
watching a video of someone working out
and you get inspired to do your own work
out.
ALSO, the whole point of inspiration is that
you see or hear something and you do
something ELSE from it. The art doesn’t
have to have a direct connection to the
inspiration. It’s loosely based.
P.S. it’s okay to be wrong.

31. Table 1
Imani
Dom
Eli
Table 2
Nate
Sums
Levy
Table 3
Elianny
Rosandris
Freddie
Do….nowish:
Take out ya art. Get in ya groups.

32. 1. Describe what the student-
artist brought in.
2. What steps did the artist take?
3. Could the artist take it another
couple steps??
PART 1:
Questions for the peer critics
PEER REVIEW
CIRCLE
PART 2: Statements for
the Student Artist
1. Describe what it is.
2. Describe the process for how
you made this.
a. What steps did you take?
b. Did you change your mind?
c. What decisions did you have to
make?

33. Table 1
Lauren
Miles
Chris
Table 2
Corina
Natalia
Brianna M
Table 3
Alex
Breana NK
Jovelis (JOVA!)
Table 4
Eric
Sara
Mohammed
Table 5
Araceli
Daniel
Brittany
Do….nowish:
Take out ya art. Get in ya groups.

34. Final Thoughts for
Diana Al-Hadid??
Questions we have about her work:
● Dom: Has she ever made anything that
doesn’t look melted or dripped?
● Eli: How did she learn these dripping
techniques? What inspired her to work
this way?
○ Sums: Why does she make her
artwork the way she makes it?
● Freddie: What feeling does she want
us to walk away with after studying it,
looking at it?
● Sums: When did she start making art?
Observations we have about her work:
● Dom: In my opinion, it’s fine. I don’t understand it.
But I like it.
● Imani: The work is kind of vague sometimes, it’s
easy to stray from her intentions.
● Rosandris: I don’t always understand the references
she draws from, but I think I’m starting to like it more.
● Elianny: She has her own style, it’s different from
any other art i’ve seen.
● Sam: It looks like she has fun making the work, but
it’s also really strong and complicated and pretty.
● Nate: Her work requires a lot of thought. You may
think it’s one thing, but it’s referencing a lot of history
to think about this art.

35. Final Thoughts for
Diana Al-Hadid??
Questions we have about her work:
● Daniel: I’m confused on how she
first became inspired to be an
artist.
● Britt: Why does she choose to be
so open about her inspirations?
● Mohammed: What’s the purpose of
using the drip technique? Why that
specific technique?
● Chris: Does she incorporate stuff
from her youth or past into her
artwork?
Observations we have about her work:
● Brianna: it’s unique and creative. She has a similar style
across all her works.
● Sara: All her work has this “movement” to it, because of
the drips. They’re frozen (do you wanna build an
artworrrrk?) in time.
● Lauren/Breee: She pushes the boundaries between
originality and copying.
● Britt: She has NO direct meaning.
● JOVA: When i look at her work, i get a sense of security.
She has this very “enclosed” art with a bigger meaning
behind it, causing her audience to think about the piece.
● Nat: She also puts her artwork in certain places or areas
(Site Specific) with a lot of thought into it.

36. OUR TOUR OUR
GUIDES!
● IVAN (Kozak)
● Nate: It was better to see the artwork in
person, it made you appreciate it more
and see the details than in pictures in
class.
● Imani: She uses the shadows to add on
to her work.
○ We thought she was kind of
depressed, since the work has
some negative connotations.
● Freddie: There’s a contrast between her
lighter art and darker art.
● Eli: Seeing the work in real life shows
how much more complex it really is.
Tour guide P (Puello)
● Sums: Our tour guide was really funny and made our
experience more interesting. The big sculpture (Nolli’s
Orders) has so much more detail that I thought it did.
● Rosandris: Seeing the wall-work was interesting.
● Elianny: There’s certain colors you can’t really see in the
photos.
○ I thought the tour guide didn’t like me, he looked at
me kind of disappointed.
● .
● .

37. OUR TOUR
OUR GUIDES!
● IVAN (Kozak)
● Eric: I enjoyed the exhibits. It was great
to see all this stuff in person. It’s a 3D
environment, not just a picture.
● Brianna: It was fun and interesting.
Seeing it in person! Interacting with new
people.
● Daniel: it changed my perspective on art
in general. I’d never been to an art
museum.
● Corina: It was cool that we got to see
the real artwork, not just pictures.
● Brianna: KOZAK IS BORING. The
museum is exciting though. It changed
my perspective on the art.
Tour guide “P” (Puello)
● Miles: It was fun being able to walk around and be able to go
into stuff. We were able to interact with it in a way that most
museums wouldn’t allow.
● Mohammed: Seeing it in person made me aware of all the
other colors in the work.
● Lauren: in person, there’s so many details that you just can’t
see from a picture. Especially from Al-Hadid’s work, there’s
so much depth.
● Eric: The guide was a bit weird. He had a vibe.
● JOVA: Some of it was improvisational, others were scripted.
○ I thought he didn’t like me?
● Lauren; he wanted us to share our ideas, but he shared his
own insights as well, which helped me find meaning in the art.

38. End of Unit Assignment
Questions to ask yourself:
● What are the biggest
social/historical/religious influences in my
life?
● How will you show the connection
between yourself and the
social/historical/religious influences in
your life?
Your detailed sketch should include…
● Location of your work and/or architecture
it is referencing
● Materials you will need
● Specific measurements
● Descriptive words you want your viewer to
feel when interacting with your work.
Create a small sculptural work of art that
references or engages with an
architectural feature in our school.
Materials: Any and all.
Timeline:
Oct: 5 + 9 (Fri/Tues) - Sketch and
Plan
Oct 10-17 - Build, Construct, etc.
OCT 15 - DIANA VISITS US.
Oct 18: Critique