{"secondaryobjectnumber":"","periodterms":[],"creditline":"Museum commission made possible by the Fowler McCormick, Class of 1921, Fund","caption":"Diana Al-Hadid (born 1981, Aleppo, Syria; active Brooklyn, NY and Amenia, NY), The Ziggurat Splits the Sky, 2025. Aluminum, bronze, and glass; 457.2 × 1234.4 × 426.7 cm. Museum commission made possible by the Fowler McCormick, Class of 1921, Fund (2025-107)","cultureterms":[{"id":2037342,"culture":"Syrian"},{"id":2038492,"culture":"American"}],"type":"artobject","dimensionsproposed":"","campus_art":false,"terms":[{"id":2055271,"term":"sculptures","aatid":300047203,"termtype":"Classification"},{"id":2037342,"term":"Syrian","aatid":300020046,"termtype":"Culture"},{"id":2038492,"term":"American","aatid":300107956,"termtype":"Culture"},{"id":2089739,"term":"architecture","aatid":300024987,"termtype":"Subject"}],"geography":[{"displaygeography":null,"code":"Place located","continent":null,"subcontinent":null,"country":null,"region":null,"state":null,"city":null,"county":null,"subregion":null,"locale":null,"locus":null,"river":null,"excavation":null,"geoname":null,"location":{"lat":"40.3472880","lon":"-74.6574422"}}],"dimensionelements":[{"element":"Overall","type":"Height","units":"centimeters","dimension":"457.19"},{"element":"Overall","type":"Width","units":"centimeters","dimension":"1234.43"},{"element":"Overall","type":"Depth","units":"centimeters","dimension":"426.71"}],"markings":null,"accessionyear":"2025-01-01","newaccession":1,"makers":[{"id":23175,"displayname":"Diana Al-Hadid","displaydate":"born 1981, Aleppo, Syria; active Brooklyn, NY and Amenia, NY","datebegin":1981,"dateend":0,"prefix":null,"suffix":null,"role":"Artist","displaymaker":"Diana Al-Hadid, born 1981, Aleppo, Syria; active Brooklyn, NY and Amenia, NY","displayorder":1}],"datecomputed":2025,"signed":null,"restrictions":"Restricted Download - Under Copyright and Reference Image","classification":"Sculpture","packages":[{"packageid":278831,"name":"10282025-DAY1-ONVIEW"},{"packageid":279982,"name":"Line_Color_Shape"},{"packageid":239550,"name":"VP_Exterior Sculpture & Terrace"}],"catalograisonne":null,"classifications":[{"id":2055271,"classification":"sculptures"}],"exhibitions":[],"cultures":[],"primaryimage":["https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/2025_10_15_JH_0093"],"displaytitle":"The Ziggurat Splits the Sky","displayculture":null,"displaymaker":"Diana Al-Hadid, born 1981, Aleppo, Syria; active Brooklyn, NY and Amenia, NY","alt_numbers":[],"captionhtml":"Diana Al-Hadid (born 1981, Aleppo, Syria; active Brooklyn, NY and Amenia, NY), <i>The Ziggurat Splits the Sky</i>, 2025. Aluminum, bronze, and glass; 457.2 × 1234.4 × 426.7 cm. Museum commission made possible by the Fowler McCormick, Class of 1921, Fund (2025-107)","displaydate":"2025","medium":"Aluminum, bronze, and glass","media":[{"id":263870,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/2025_10_15_JH_0063","isprimary":0,"rank":2,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":"Restricted Download - Under Copyright and Reference Image","caption":"PUAM Photo"},{"id":263871,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/2025_10_15_JH_0093","isprimary":1,"rank":1,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":"Restricted Download - Under Copyright and Reference Image","caption":"PUAM Photo"}],"displayperiod":null,"extended_content":true,"campuscollections":"false","bibliography":[],"nowebuse":"False","periods":[],"department":"Modern and Contemporary Art","attribute_groups":[{"id":2199318,"term":"Art of the Islamic World and West Asia","termtype":"Collecting Area"},{"id":2199324,"term":"Art Since 1945","termtype":"Collecting Area"},{"id":2199328,"term":"Campus Art","termtype":"Collecting Area"}],"daterange":"A.D. 1945-present","dateend":2025,"depicted":[],"titles":[{"title":"The Ziggurat Splits the Sky","titletype":"Primary Title","displayorder":1}],"hasimage":"true","creditlinerepro":"© Diana Al-Hadid","objectnumber":"2025-107","inscribed":null,"texts":[{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Multivocal Label","textentryhtml":"<p>\n\tMy process is like an excavation in reverse: handmade, built up, and moving forward while looking back. It simultaneously redraws the past and imagines the\n\n\tfuture. I take inspiration from the archives of Howard Crosby Butler, Class of 1892 (1872–1922), archaeologist and professor of architectural history at Princeton. Photographs from his excavation of ancient Sardis in present-day Turkey—near my birthplace of Aleppo, Syria—show my would-be Bedouin ancestors posed among fragments of columns and figural sculptures that persisted in the ruins for millennia.\n</p>\n<p>\n\tThis sculpture traces the form of an ancient Mesopotamian ziggurat—a mammoth structure built by humans to ascend and meet the divine. My ziggurat, however, is permeable and fragmented. Its entrance aligns with the Museum’s entrance below, inviting visitors to imagine they are entering a sacred and ancient space. It rises above a blue mosaic sky, within which the calm face of Medusa looks upward, recalling the Antioch mosaic in the Museum.\n</p>\n<p><b>\n\tDiana Al-Hadid</b>, artist\n</p>","remarks":"Al_Hadid_WLA_FA-Day 1 Cataloguing"},{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Provenance","textentryhtml":"Commissioned by the Princeton University Art Museum, 2025.","remarks":"as per acquisition proposal"}],"datebegin":2025,"sortnumber":"2025  107","published_date":"2026-05-09 02:01:28.566320","objectid":142773,"dimensions":"457.2 × 1234.4 × 426.7 cm (180 × 486 × 168 in.)","on_view":true}