The Fates

Al-Hadid’s series “The Fates” came out in 2014. It was on display at the Secession in Vienna from September 11th through November 2nd. My favorite piece in the installment is “Phantom Limb”. The sculpture is topped with the figure of a reclining headless woman. The woman appears almost ethereal with her solid white body, speckled with various colors, melting from below her torso. The woman sits upon thin, stacked layers of black and gold. They give off the appearance of a staircase or waves. These layers wrap around 3 stacked squares topped with white paint dripping down the sides, similar in appearance to the melting woman. I absolutely love this piece. The contrast from the different colors, textures, and shapes makes it really dynamic and gives the piece lots of movement. The way the whole piece seems to defy gravity is amazing. I also think the decision to do the majority of the work in black and white, and then add emphasis and detail with pops of red, blue, green, and gold really elevated this piece as a whole. Two free-standing wall panels go along with “Phantom Limb”: “Sleepwalker” and “Still Life with Gold”. Like the panels “The Grotto” and the “Gravida” from my last post, “Sleepwalker” and “Still Life with Gold” feature the main female characters from the novel “Gravida” and the painting “Allegory of Chastity”. In the exhibition the two panels were placed on opposite sides of “Phantom Limb”. My first thought when I found out that Al-Hadid used the references from “Delirious Matter” in these panels was that the pieces were going to look nearly identical to “The Grotto” and “Gravida”. I was pleasantly surprised to find that “Sleepwalker” and “Still Life with Gold” looked drastically different. When using the same source material on multiple pieces it's easy to end up with artwork that look the same, so it's impressive how Al-Hadid did not fall into that pattern.

"Phantom Limb"

"Sleepwalker"

"Still Life with Gold"