Irena Posner explores the entanglements of time, relationality, and selfhood through direct stone carving. A graduate of the Royal College of Art, she has received the Gilbert Bayes Sculpture Award and participated in residencies like the Harlow Sculpture Town. Her practice is shaped by a dialogue between historical veneration of stone and a contemporary, improvisational approach. She draws from a wide range of influences, including Roman and Neoclassical traditions, as well as literary sources like Julia Kristeva and Donna Haraway. Posner’s work often deconstructs the monumental, engaging with the material’s origins and temporal strata. By treating carving as both method and thought, she creates sculptures that retain an awareness of their creation, resisting legacy through a direct engagement with contingency, error, and the “animality” of form.

WP_Query Object
(
    [query] => Array
        (
            [post_type] => cpt_artworks
            [post_status] => publish
            [meta_query] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Array
                        (
                            [key] => artworks_artist
                            [value] => s:5:"18829";
                            [compare] => LIKE
                        )

                )

        )

    [query_vars] => Array
        (
            [post_type] => cpt_artworks
            [post_status] => publish
            [meta_query] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Array
                        (
                            [key] => artworks_artist
                            [value] => s:5:"18829";
                            [compare] => LIKE
                        )

                )

            [error] => 
            [m] => 
            [p] => 0
            [post_parent] => 
            [subpost] => 
            [subpost_id] => 
            [attachment] => 
            [attachment_id] => 0
            [name] => 
            [pagename] => 
            [page_id] => 0
            [second] => 
            [minute] => 
            [hour] => 
            [day] => 0
            [monthnum] => 0
            [year] => 0
            [w] => 0
            [category_name] => 
            [tag] => 
            [cat] => 
            [tag_id] => 
            [author] => 
            [author_name] => 
            [feed] => 
            [tb] => 
            [paged] => 0
            [meta_key] => 
            [meta_value] => 
            [preview] => 
            [s] => 
            [sentence] => 
            [title] => 
            [fields] => 
            [menu_order] => 
            [embed] => 
            [category__in] => Array
                (
                )

            [category__not_in] => Array
                (
                )

            [category__and] => Array
                (
                )

            [post__in] => Array
                (
                )

            [post__not_in] => Array
                (
                )

            [post_name__in] => Array
                (
                )

            [tag__in] => Array
                (
                )

            [tag__not_in] => Array
                (
                )

            [tag__and] => Array
                (
                )

            [tag_slug__in] => Array
                (
                )

            [tag_slug__and] => Array
                (
                )

            [post_parent__in] => Array
                (
                )

            [post_parent__not_in] => Array
                (
                )

            [author__in] => Array
                (
                )

            [author__not_in] => Array
                (
                )

            [search_columns] => Array
                (
                )

            [ignore_sticky_posts] => 
            [suppress_filters] => 
            [cache_results] => 1
            [update_post_term_cache] => 1
            [update_menu_item_cache] => 
            [lazy_load_term_meta] => 1
            [update_post_meta_cache] => 1
            [posts_per_page] => 11
            [nopaging] => 
            [comments_per_page] => 50
            [no_found_rows] => 
            [order] => DESC
        )

    [tax_query] => WP_Tax_Query Object
        (
            [queries] => Array
                (
                )

            [relation] => AND
            [table_aliases:protected] => Array
                (
                )

            [queried_terms] => Array
                (
                )

            [primary_table] => wp_posts
            [primary_id_column] => ID
        )

    [meta_query] => WP_Meta_Query Object
        (
            [queries] => Array
                (
                    [0] => Array
                        (
                            [key] => artworks_artist
                            [value] => s:5:"18829";
                            [compare] => LIKE
                        )

                    [relation] => OR
                )

            [relation] => AND
            [meta_table] => wp_postmeta
            [meta_id_column] => post_id
            [primary_table] => wp_posts
            [primary_id_column] => ID
            [table_aliases:protected] => Array
                (
                    [0] => wp_postmeta
                )

            [clauses:protected] => Array
                (
                    [wp_postmeta] => Array
                        (
                            [key] => artworks_artist
                            [value] => s:5:"18829";
                            [compare] => LIKE
                            [compare_key] => =
                            [alias] => wp_postmeta
                            [cast] => CHAR
                        )

                )

            [has_or_relation:protected] => 
        )

    [date_query] => 
    [request] => SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS  wp_posts.ID
					 FROM wp_posts  INNER JOIN wp_postmeta ON ( wp_posts.ID = wp_postmeta.post_id ) JOIN wp_icl_translations wpml_translations
							ON wp_posts.ID = wpml_translations.element_id
								AND wpml_translations.element_type = CONCAT('post_', wp_posts.post_type) 
					 WHERE 1=1  AND ( 
  ( wp_postmeta.meta_key = 'artworks_artist' AND wp_postmeta.meta_value LIKE '{8af802016e89f9c81a5b41f9c64cf93bcbfac056472327d28da78c12f516b7a5}s:5:\"18829\";{8af802016e89f9c81a5b41f9c64cf93bcbfac056472327d28da78c12f516b7a5}' )
) AND wp_posts.post_type = 'cpt_artworks' AND ((wp_posts.post_status = 'publish')) AND ( ( ( wpml_translations.language_code = 'en' OR (
					wpml_translations.language_code = 'en'
					AND wp_posts.post_type IN ( 'qrcode' )
					AND ( ( 
			( SELECT COUNT(element_id)
			  FROM wp_icl_translations
			  WHERE trid = wpml_translations.trid
			  AND language_code = 'en'
			) = 0
			 ) OR ( 
			( SELECT COUNT(element_id)
				FROM wp_icl_translations t2
				JOIN wp_posts p ON p.id = t2.element_id
				WHERE t2.trid = wpml_translations.trid
				AND t2.language_code = 'en'
                AND (
                    p.post_status = 'publish' OR p.post_status = 'private' OR 
                    ( p.post_type='attachment' AND p.post_status = 'inherit' )
                )
			) = 0 ) ) 
				) ) AND wp_posts.post_type  IN ('post','page','attachment','wp_block','wp_template','wp_template_part','wp_navigation','cpt_programs','cpt_artworks','cpt_artists','cpt_events','qrcode','cpt_trails','cpt_curators','cpt_podcast','opencall','surveys','cpt_awards' )  ) OR wp_posts.post_type  NOT  IN ('post','page','attachment','wp_block','wp_template','wp_template_part','wp_navigation','cpt_programs','cpt_artworks','cpt_artists','cpt_events','qrcode','cpt_trails','cpt_curators','cpt_podcast','opencall','surveys','cpt_awards' )  )
					 GROUP BY wp_posts.ID
					 ORDER BY wp_posts.post_date DESC
					 LIMIT 0, 11
    [posts] => Array
        (
            [0] => WP_Post Object
                (
                    [ID] => 18990
                    [post_author] => 14
                    [post_date] => 2026-01-13 16:29:50
                    [post_date_gmt] => 2026-01-13 13:29:50
                    [post_content] => 
                    [post_title] => Dawn and Dusk
                    [post_excerpt] => 
                    [post_status] => publish
                    [comment_status] => closed
                    [ping_status] => closed
                    [post_password] => 
                    [post_name] => dawn-and-dusk
                    [to_ping] => 
                    [pinged] => 
                    [post_modified] => 2026-01-26 16:03:21
                    [post_modified_gmt] => 2026-01-26 13:03:21
                    [post_content_filtered] => 
                    [post_parent] => 0
                    [guid] => https://riyadhart.sa/?post_type=cpt_artworks&p=18990
                    [menu_order] => 0
                    [post_type] => cpt_artworks
                    [post_mime_type] => 
                    [comment_count] => 0
                    [filter] => raw
                )

        )

    [post_count] => 1
    [current_post] => -1
    [before_loop] => 1
    [in_the_loop] => 
    [post] => WP_Post Object
        (
            [ID] => 18990
            [post_author] => 14
            [post_date] => 2026-01-13 16:29:50
            [post_date_gmt] => 2026-01-13 13:29:50
            [post_content] => 
            [post_title] => Dawn and Dusk
            [post_excerpt] => 
            [post_status] => publish
            [comment_status] => closed
            [ping_status] => closed
            [post_password] => 
            [post_name] => dawn-and-dusk
            [to_ping] => 
            [pinged] => 
            [post_modified] => 2026-01-26 16:03:21
            [post_modified_gmt] => 2026-01-26 13:03:21
            [post_content_filtered] => 
            [post_parent] => 0
            [guid] => https://riyadhart.sa/?post_type=cpt_artworks&p=18990
            [menu_order] => 0
            [post_type] => cpt_artworks
            [post_mime_type] => 
            [comment_count] => 0
            [filter] => raw
        )

    [comment_count] => 0
    [current_comment] => -1
    [found_posts] => 1
    [max_num_pages] => 1
    [max_num_comment_pages] => 0
    [is_single] => 
    [is_preview] => 
    [is_page] => 
    [is_archive] => 
    [is_date] => 
    [is_year] => 
    [is_month] => 
    [is_day] => 
    [is_time] => 
    [is_author] => 
    [is_category] => 
    [is_tag] => 
    [is_tax] => 
    [is_search] => 
    [is_feed] => 
    [is_comment_feed] => 
    [is_trackback] => 
    [is_home] => 1
    [is_privacy_policy] => 
    [is_404] => 
    [is_embed] => 
    [is_paged] => 
    [is_admin] => 
    [is_attachment] => 
    [is_singular] => 
    [is_robots] => 
    [is_favicon] => 
    [is_posts_page] => 
    [is_post_type_archive] => 
    [query_vars_hash:WP_Query:private] => b9bbbd6c52bb824c6d55112383952b44
    [query_vars_changed:WP_Query:private] => 
    [thumbnails_cached] => 
    [allow_query_attachment_by_filename:protected] => 
    [stopwords:WP_Query:private] => 
    [compat_fields:WP_Query:private] => Array
        (
            [0] => query_vars_hash
            [1] => query_vars_changed
        )

    [compat_methods:WP_Query:private] => Array
        (
            [0] => init_query_flags
            [1] => parse_tax_query
        )

)

---

RELATED

ARTWORKS

Dawn and Dusk

by Irena Posner

Tuwaiq Sculpture