Still from The Rebar Beneath. Image credit: LionHeart
Multidisciplinary artist LionHeart has created The Rebar Beneath, an 11-minute, dual-channel video installation commissioned by the Zaha Hadid Foundation. The work was commissioned to mark the tenth anniversary of Zaha Hadid‘s death.
Trailer for The Rebar Beneath. Video credit: LionHeart
The work combines film, poetry, performance, movement, and spatial installation, drawing on Hadid’s early drawings and paintings to explore ideas of form, perception, and expression. Developed through engagement with the foundation’s archive, the commission examines the relationship between visible surfaces and the underlying structures that shape how space is perceived.
Still from The Rebar Beneath. Image credit: LionHeart
Visually, the installation incorporates abstract compositions, symmetry, layered projections, shifting angles, and sculptural forms, translating aspects of Hadid’s design approach into moving image. The work also references Hadid’s early experimentation with architectural representation and her engagement with the Constructivist avant-garde.
Still from The Rebar Beneath. Image credit: LionHeart
The Rebar Beneath will be presented at the Zaha Hadid Foundation’s refurbished premises at 10 Bowling Green Lane in Clerkenwell, London. The exhibition opened to the public this week and runs until April 24th, 2027.
Still from The Rebar Beneath. Image credit: LionHeart
The installation will be presented alongside two other exhibitions. Zaha Hadid: Architecture of Performance, curated by Catherine Howe and guest curator Libby Sellers, will examine stage and set designs produced by Hadid and her practice. Meanwhile, artist Mona Chalabi’s The Completely Exhausting Inexhaustibility of Zaha Hadid will present an illustrated timeline exploring the architect’s life and creative output.
Still from The Rebar Beneath. Image credit: LionHeart
Similar articles on Archinect that may interest you…