Walking into Madison
Square Park is a truly beautiful, overwhelming experience. From its lush trees
to its rotating art features, visiting the space is a unique occurrence. It is no
wonder that with the massive number of visitors, 60,000 according to the Deputy
Director for Madison Square Park, Brooke Kamin Rapaport (2018), artist Diana
Al-Hadid chose the site for her first major artwork (10). Delirious Matter
was on display in the park from May 14 to September 3, 2018. The sculptures she
created invite park goers to enter another world inspired by femininity, the
value placed on virginity, and how they shape our society. In the introduction
for her artwork, Rapaport explains that the title “Delirious” is derived from “the
artist’s pursuit of materials that are transformed as if in a state of
delirium, or disorder; a nod to Sigmund Freud’s 1907 psychoanalytic essay “Delusion
and Dream in Jensen’s Gradiva’; and the winding Park pathways” (11). Diana
clearly put a lot of thought and care into the placement of all six artworks
that were featured in this exhibition. Although at first glance the six
artworks in Delirious Matter seem like modern architectural works of
art, after close inspection and diligent research, it then becomes clear that
the artworks communicate past and current perceptions of feminine chastity.
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Gradiva
Photo Credit: Object Studies via Diana Al-Hadid |
Delirious Matter
was Al-Hadid’s first public artwork. She was able to achieve this incredible
feat partially through an award from the National Endowment for the Arts and
the rest of the funding was provided by sponsorships and endowments. Madison
Square Park has been public land since 1686 and stretches 6.2 acres (Madison Square Park Conservancy n.d.). Madison Square Park
Conservancy is a not-for-profit organization that cares for the park and
arranges everything from sanitation and horticulture to community engagement (Al-Hadid,
Friedman, et al. 2018, 48). Madison Square Park
Conservancy started commissioning outdoor works in 2004. Prior to this, from
2000 to 2003, the art was presented by the Public Art Fund (Al-Hadid, Friedman, et al. 2018, 57). Sheila Pepe’s My
Neighbor’s Garden is currently on exhibit in the park, and it looks like someone
dove into the mind of a young child. Sheila, just like Diana, also received her
first public artwork appearance through the Madison Square Park Conservancy. Even
though Madison Square Park’s website does not contain an explanation of the
type of artwork they look for, but after hovering over “art” on their website
it revealed this statement, “Public art has the ability to inspire, provoke,
and challenge” (Madison Square
Park Conservancy n.d.).
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Art Description on
Madison Square Park Conservancy Website |
After looking at
their past public art exhibitions it is clear that they keep that statement in
mind when choosing who to feature. For instance, on their website Sheila Pepe
is described as “a feminist and queer artist whose elaborate web-like
structures summon and critique conventional women’s craft practice, uses
crochet to transform contemporary sculpture” (Madison Square Park Conservancy 2023). Much like Diana,
Shiela has a valid criticism against a facet of femininity.
The overall response to
Diana Al-Hadid’s Delirious Matter was a positive one. The majority of the
articles that explain the art are summarizing the artworks, not reviewing them.
Britt Stigler had the pleasure of walking through the exhibition with Diana and
gave some refreshing insight into the inspiration behind some of the artworks. “The
relaxed figures create a stillness that contrasts with the kinetic vibration
found in the northern-most work in the exhibition, ‘Citadel’” (Stigler 2018). Stigler, just like
every person that has seen and written about the artwork, had a positive
opinion on the sculptures. At first glance, it seems like the artist was
inspired by the pain of femininity.
It took four years to
complete Delirious Matter. Diana Al-Hadid began scoping out the location
in 2014 and noticed how many people congregate in the pathways of the park (Al-Hadid,
et al. 2018, 10).
The public artwork consists of six pieces, Grotto, Gradiva, Citadel, and
3 copies of Synonym. All of the pieces are made of aluminum, steel,
fiberglass, concrete, polymer modified gypsum, and pigment (Al-Hadid, et al. 2018, 50-51). Each piece works
together to create an immersive experience. Grotto resembles a piece of
architecture that is collapsing. It is also shrouded in white and has a
beautiful, mountain-like landscape in the background. The piece was inspired by
Memling’s Allegory of Chastity. The intention was to spark a question
within the viewer and experiencer of the artwork and make them wonder whether
or not the woman in the artwork is being protected or caged. The Grotto
is placed
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Grotto
Photo Credit: Object Studies via Diana Al-Hadid |
across the other wall, Gradiva. Diana Al-Hadid explains that
“Gradiva’s is the story of a relief sculpture come to life, pulling away from a
flat wall and emerging as a figure in the round” (Al-Hadid, et al. 2018, 16). The piece was
inspired by Gradiva, a German novella from 1903. The Citadel is
also inspired by Memling’s work and is clearly a form of protection and
separation between the woman on top of the mountain and the public. The artist
explains that “the footprint of the sculpture is an oval, which sits in a round
pool, and has a distinct front–back orientation” (Al-Hadid, et al. 2018, 17). To create the
mountain, Al-Hadid “began by making a loose painting of Memling’s mountain to
the scale of the sculpture on my studio wall... traced each mark of the
painting with steel rods, which were welded and progressively extruded from the
wall to finally form a mountain in the round” (Al-Hadid, Friedman, et al. 2018, 17). Arguably one of the
more memorable pieces of the public artwork, the Synonym depicts a
headless and legless woman that is living in the garden. Synonym
resembles a female placed on a pedestal that is slowly melting and succumbing to
the pressures of womanhood that have been put upon her. Synonym is meant
to be the opposite of an earlier work of Al-Hadid’s titled Antonym. Both
pieces are molds of women without heads, however Antonym is slightly
more constructed. Antonym has legs and resembles a melting woman, also
perched upon a disintegrating pedestal.
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Antonym
Photo Credit: Jason Wyche via Diana Al-Hadid |
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Synonym
Photo credit: Madison Square Garden |
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Gradiva and Grotto with Hedges
Photo Credit: Stigler 2018 |
Before the debut of Delirious
Matter, Al-Hadid considered the park’s layout and key features before she chose
the arts’ locations and designs (Al-Hadid, et al. 2018, 10, 17). She proves this
attention to detail by creating a “room” with the hedges in the park, “this
room is sort of a way that the public can be in a space together that feels a
little bit more intimate” (Stigler 2018). To create a sense of delirium, Al-Hadid
also created three nearly identical Synonyms that are scattered around
the park (Stigler 2018). Al-Hadid used the space to her
advantage in order to properly communicate the story her art is telling. In
contrast, when Delirious Matter was featured on the lawn of Williams
College from 2018 to 2019, everything seemed out of place. While in Madison
Square Park, Delirious Matter added to the park and was a welcome
contrast to the bright green grass. However, in front of Williams College the
works seem out of place. Part of what made Delirious Matter so beautiful
was the contrast between the lush, green landscape and the stark white sculptures.
Even though Williams College is beautiful, the modern mountains that Al-Hadid
created are a harsh contrast to the 1975 building. Before this, Delirious
Matter was on display in the Frist Art Museum in a gallery with white walls.
Much like in front of Williams College, the sculptures kept their beauty but blended
into the space. However, thanks to the bright lights, the beautiful lines and
shadows that are cast within the body of Synonym help the sculpture
stand out. Gradiva also received some benefit from the fluorescent glow,
every layer that Al-Hadid made is visible and it becomes even more clear how
much care she put into the piece.
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Synonym and Gradiva in First Art Museum
Photo Credit: John Schweikert via Diana Al-Hadid |
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The Grotto in front of Williams College
Photo credit: Richard Miller via Williams College Museum of Art |
“For many years now, I’ve
been working with two fictitious women in my studio. They have been slowly
circulating in the dust and debris, showing up in my drawings on Mylar, in wall
panels, and in sculptures. One woman, Gradiva, comes from an
early-twentieth-century novella by the same name” (Al-Hadid, et al. 2018, 16). Gradiva: A
Pompeiian Fancy is a short story written by Wilhelm Jensen in 1918. In the
story the main character, Norbert Hanold, is an archaeologist that finds the
cast of a beautiful woman in a bas-relief in Rome. He names her Gradiva,
meaning “the girl splendid in walking”. He loves the bas-relief so much that he
arranges for a plaster-cast of the relief to be made and sets it up in his
room. After looking at the relief daily, Hanold fabricates a story that she is
a young woman from Pompeii that is walking on the stepping-stones of the street
(68). “She was still young…a Roman virgin about in her twentieth year” (Jensen 1918, 3). Part of what drew
Hanold toward Gradiva was her innocence and her unique walk. One day he decided
to watch other women outside of his home walk to see if they walk the same way
as Gradiva and discovers that no one walks the same way she does. Apart from the
protagonist’s obsession with Gradiva and her walk, Jensen also gives a
meticulous description of the ruins of Pompeii along with how the protagonist
felt when visiting the space. He is described as feeling unsettled and having
dreams of the citizens of Pompeii running from the erupting volcano (Jensen 1918, 12, 48). During his dream of
Pompeii before the explosion, he tries to warn the young girl but is unable to
communicate with her (Jensen 1918, 13). After the dream, he visits Pompeii and
is greeted by the sight of Gradiva walking in the street. She walks away from
him in the same way he saw her exist in his dream, and for a moment he debates
whether or not what he’s experiencing is a dream (53).
Norbert Hanold eventually
meets her and speaks with her a number of times, and questions whether or not
she is real. During one of their interactions, the supposed Gradiva questions
Hanold twice about what made her walk so different from other peoples. When she
asks a second time he thinks, “her repeated wish to learn this proved her not
entirely free from feminine curiosity” (Jensen 1918, 70). He finally reveals
the reason, to which she laughs off. At last, he learns that her true name is
Zoë. She explains that she has always fancied Hanold and found the story of
Gradiva funny. The story contains a wonderful twist and reveals that Zoë is
actually a childhood friend of Hanold’s and her last name is Bertgang, which
means “the one splendid in walking” just like Gradiva (Jensen 1918, 111). The story ends with
their relationship as fresh as a bud. After reading the story, it is
understandable why the story sparked an interest in Al-Hadid. Not only is it will-written
but it also shines a light on how men likely perceive women and the things they
pay attention to. It was so inspiring that even Sigmund Freud read the story
and wrote an analytical essay on the story titled Delusions And Dreams In
Jensen's Gradiva. In his analysis, he argues that dreams are substitute
wish fulfillments.
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| Allegory of Chastity |
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Citadel
Photo Credit: Cameron Blaylock via Diana Al-Hadid
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The second inspiration
behind Delirious Matter is the painting, Allegory of Chastity (Al-Hadid, et al. 2018, 10).
In the painting, a young woman is settled within a mountain of amethyst, and
she is guarded by lions that are bearing coat of arms (Musea Brugge 2020). It is unclear when
the painting was finished, but it was around the 1480’s. Much like Gradiva, the
painting depicts a woman that is frozen in time and protected by her
environment. However, she too is unable to leave. The woman in the painting is
calm and collected, her hands are in front of her chest. She is set apart from
the rest of the world; the village where she likely came from is miles behind
her. Her predicament begs understanding of one key issue, if she is set apart
with nothing but lions to protect her, what happens when it’s time for her to
leave. Perhaps the lions were born with the sentient talent to tell when a
worthy male has come to rescue her, or they will tear her apart when she is
tired of her cage and wants escape. After analyzing the painting, it is clear
that she is not in control of her situation. If she was, there would perhaps be
steps on the size of the amethyst, or the lions would be muzzled for her
protection.
Even though within
circles of the world sexuality is accepted and viewed as a normal part of human
existence, there are subgroups of people that disagree with this mentality. One
example of this is the importance that people place upon “body counts”. A body
count is a colloquial term for the number of sexual partners that people have. After
a simple google search for “what is an acceptable body count” a positive article
from Healthline popped up and explained that a person’s body count can differ
depending on their age, gender, and where they live (Brito and Sutton 2023). However, after
watching some YouTube videos and TikTok’s made by men there is still a clear
stigma about how a woman is seen differently if she is not a virgin or has a
minimal body count (Strikeitbig 2023). In the TikTok titled THESE Women
Waste Your Time, the interviewee makes it clear that he refuses to marry a
woman that has slept with more than three people. This person also has little
regard for the number of people they’ve slept with. Much like in Jensen
portrays in Gradiva, men have and continue to prioritize a woman’s sexual
history as a qualifier for attraction.
Al-Hadid represented Citadel
in a deliberate and exact way. However, Synonym seems to be open to
interpretation. Considering the high amount of attention that Jensen placed on
Gradiva’s legs, perhaps Diana Al-Hadid used that obsession as part of the
inspiration behind Synonym being legless. Both women that are depicted still
communicate that movement is not an option for them. Perhaps this lack of
moment is a reflection of the lack of change within men’s mindsets when it
pertains to women’s sexuality and their lack of chastity.
Diana Al-Hadid’s Delirious
Matter was a startling, eye-catching public artwork that drew attention to the perception
of women and the social significance that is placed on their chastity. Everything
from her choice of materials to the number of sculptures that she features, are
full of intention and artistic integrity. The artworks have since travelled to
other galleries and exhibitions, but their true home will always be Madison
Square Park. In the Madison Square Park, Al-Hadid was able to create something
truly magical. She combined her literary knowledge with unusual materials and
unique techniques. The white figures of Synonym along with the
industrial harshness of Citadel is a welcome and stark juxtaposition to
the green lawn of the park. With her architectural elements, Grotto and Gradiva,
she built a room to give her figures a home and a safe place to exist within
the bustling New York city. Even though the artworks are no longer on the lawn
of the Madison Square Park, the impression they left was a long lasting one.
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Citadel
Photo Credit: Cameron Blaylock via Diana Al-Hadid
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References
Al-Hadid, Diana. 2019. Delirious Matter.
Frist Art Museum, Nashville.
http://www.dianaalhadid.com/work/gradiva/slideshow?view=slider#13.
Al-Hadid, Diana, Martin Friedman, Nancy Princenthal,
and Brooke Kamin Rapaport. 2018. "Diana Al-Hadid: Delirious
Matter." Madison Square Park Conservancy. New York City, May 14.
10-57.
Brito, Janet, and Jandra Sutton. 2023. What’s the
Average Person’s Number of Sexual Partners? April 17. Accessed October
20, 2023. https://www.healthline.com/health/healthy-sex/average-number-of-sexual-partners.
Jensen, Wilhelm. 1918. Gradiva: A Pompeiian
Fancy. New York: Moffat, Yard and Company.
Madison Square Park Conservancy. n.d. A Public
Space at the Heart of Our City. Accessed October 21, 2023. https://madisonsquarepark.org/park/about-the-park/.
—. n.d. Our Mission. Accessed October 21,
2023. https://madisonsquarepark.org/park/conservancy/.
—. 2023. Sheila Pepe: “My Neighbor’s Garden”.
June 26. Accessed October 21, 2023. https://madisonsquarepark.org/art/exhibitions/sheila-pepe-my-neighbors-garden/.
Memling, Hans. 1475. Allegory of Chastity.
Musea Brugge. 2020. "Memling Now." Brugges
press department, January 10. 13.
https://www.wga.hu/html_m/m/memling/2middle3/15allego.html.
Stigler, Britt. 2018. All Arts. August 17.
Accessed October 21, 2023.
https://www.allarts.org/2018/08/diana-al-hadid-on-delirious-matter/.
Strikeitbig. 2023. THESE women waste your time.
March 30. Accessed October 20, 2023.
https://www.tiktok.com/@strikeitbig/video/7216313341239774469.
Williams College Museum of Art. 2018. Diana
Al-Hadid: Delirious Matter. October 3. Accessed October 11, 2023.
https://artmuseum.williams.edu/diana-al-hadid-delirious-matter/.
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