Diamonds Aren’t Forever by Hadar Kleiman takes on the symbolic and historical weight of the diamond, offering unwieldy wooden diamonds on a grand scale that parody the advertising pretenses surrounding engagement and marriage ceremonies. Kleiman’s practice examines artifice and presentation within fabricated spaces, reinterpreting the absurd luxury of cities like Las Vegas to understand and undercut their cultural significance through eerie scenes of empty gambling tables, dismembered plaster hands, and flickering green neon. By choosing to recreate the form of a diamond at an impossible scale from polished wood—a material susceptible to mold, fire, and everyday damage—she reveals the charade in the marketing scheme “Diamonds are Forever,” placing them centerstage in the modern arena of divorce and disappointment. The four Cs of gemstone quality in Kleiman’s work can only stand for Capitalism, Commercialism, Counterfeit, and Contrivance.

- Christopher Squier