Majd Abdel Hamid, Son this is a waste of time, 2017

Silk thread on linen
24.5 x 21.5 cm
Unique
MAH/TEX 13

silk or cotton thread on cloth
dimensions variable
unique

“In 2015, I tried to get a woman to create an embroidery for me: I wanted to have white thread embroidered on fabric, but the woman told me she wouldn’t do it, adding, “Son, this is a waste of time.” I ended up doing the embroidery myself, which turned into a series I’m still working on. […] “
Precisely the artist’s practice manifests a slow, concentrated and repetitive time, a time that today’s all-powerful productivity injunction would call wasted. A laborious and fragile work process that is as important as its result. This need for reinvention in the face of bankruptcy or failure also concerns the motifs of modern Western art. His reappropriation of Malevich’s white square in embroidery, for example, allows him to reinvest this canonical motif with social and political concerns, which have been progressively erased by its institutionalization even though they were inscribed in the intentions of the Russian painter. Using only white, he decolors the levels of representation, questioning the
relationship between work and visual value.The works focus more on the repetitive gesture of the needle and the repetitive process of stitch on stitch. He spends hundreds of hours, laborious and dreamy, during which he discovers the reflexive dimension of this manual practice that allows him to adopt the right tempo, the right distance from the jolts of the world and the flow of images that circulate.

There has been a constant fire for over a month is a sub-series of Son this is a waste of time, started when, exactly two years after the initial explosion, what was left of the silos in the port of Beirut, caught fire.

The new pieces testify to a certain fragility and instability that is once again taking hold in Beirut.

Majd Abdel Hamid, Son this is a waste of time, 24 hours, 2020

Cotton thread on fabric
11 x 11.5 cm, dimensions variable
Unique
MAH/TEX 2

silk or cotton thread on cloth
dimensions variable
unique

“In 2015, I tried to get a woman to create an embroidery for me: I wanted to have white thread embroidered on fabric, but the woman told me she wouldn’t do it, adding, “Son, this is a waste of time.” I ended up doing the embroidery myself, which turned into a series I’m still working on. […] “
Precisely the artist’s practice manifests a slow, concentrated and repetitive time, a time that today’s all-powerful productivity injunction would call wasted. A laborious and fragile work process that is as important as its result. This need for reinvention in the face of bankruptcy or failure also concerns the motifs of modern Western art. His reappropriation of Malevich’s white square in embroidery, for example, allows him to reinvest this canonical motif with social and political concerns, which have been progressively erased by its institutionalization even though they were inscribed in the intentions of the Russian painter. Using only white, he decolors the levels of representation, questioning the
relationship between work and visual value.The works focus more on the repetitive gesture of the needle and the repetitive process of stitch on stitch. He spends hundreds of hours, laborious and dreamy, during which he discovers the reflexive dimension of this manual practice that allows him to adopt the right tempo, the right distance from the jolts of the world and the flow of images that circulate.

There has been a constant fire for over a month is a sub-series of Son this is a waste of time, started when, exactly two years after the initial explosion, what was left of the silos in the port of Beirut, caught fire.

The new pieces testify to a certain fragility and instability that is once again taking hold in Beirut.

Majd Abdel Hamid, There has been a constant fire for over a month, IV, 2022

Cotton thread on fabric
20 x 16.3 cm
Unique
MAH/TEX 72

silk or cotton thread on cloth
dimensions variable
unique

“In 2015, I tried to get a woman to create an embroidery for me: I wanted to have white thread embroidered on fabric, but the woman told me she wouldn’t do it, adding, “Son, this is a waste of time.” I ended up doing the embroidery myself, which turned into a series I’m still working on. […] “
Precisely the artist’s practice manifests a slow, concentrated and repetitive time, a time that today’s all-powerful productivity injunction would call wasted. A laborious and fragile work process that is as important as its result. This need for reinvention in the face of bankruptcy or failure also concerns the motifs of modern Western art. His reappropriation of Malevich’s white square in embroidery, for example, allows him to reinvest this canonical motif with social and political concerns, which have been progressively erased by its institutionalization even though they were inscribed in the intentions of the Russian painter. Using only white, he decolors the levels of representation, questioning the
relationship between work and visual value.The works focus more on the repetitive gesture of the needle and the repetitive process of stitch on stitch. He spends hundreds of hours, laborious and dreamy, during which he discovers the reflexive dimension of this manual practice that allows him to adopt the right tempo, the right distance from the jolts of the world and the flow of images that circulate.

There has been a constant fire for over a month is a sub-series of Son this is a waste of time, started when, exactly two years after the initial explosion, what was left of the silos in the port of Beirut, caught fire.

The new pieces testify to a certain fragility and instability that is once again taking hold in Beirut.

Majd Abdel Hamid, There has been a constant fire for over a month, III, 2022

Cotton thread on fabric
28.8 x 26 cm
Unique
MAH/TEX 73

silk or cotton thread on cloth
dimensions variable
unique

“In 2015, I tried to get a woman to create an embroidery for me: I wanted to have white thread embroidered on fabric, but the woman told me she wouldn’t do it, adding, “Son, this is a waste of time.” I ended up doing the embroidery myself, which turned into a series I’m still working on. […] “
Precisely the artist’s practice manifests a slow, concentrated and repetitive time, a time that today’s all-powerful productivity injunction would call wasted. A laborious and fragile work process that is as important as its result. This need for reinvention in the face of bankruptcy or failure also concerns the motifs of modern Western art. His reappropriation of Malevich’s white square in embroidery, for example, allows him to reinvest this canonical motif with social and political concerns, which have been progressively erased by its institutionalization even though they were inscribed in the intentions of the Russian painter. Using only white, he decolors the levels of representation, questioning the
relationship between work and visual value.The works focus more on the repetitive gesture of the needle and the repetitive process of stitch on stitch. He spends hundreds of hours, laborious and dreamy, during which he discovers the reflexive dimension of this manual practice that allows him to adopt the right tempo, the right distance from the jolts of the world and the flow of images that circulate.

There has been a constant fire for over a month is a sub-series of Son this is a waste of time, started when, exactly two years after the initial explosion, what was left of the silos in the port of Beirut, caught fire.

The new pieces testify to a certain fragility and instability that is once again taking hold in Beirut.

Majd Abdel Hamid, There has been a constant fire for over a month, V, 2022

Cotton thread on fabric
15.2 x 15.2
Unique
MAH/TEX 69

silk or cotton thread on cloth
dimensions variable
unique

“In 2015, I tried to get a woman to create an embroidery for me: I wanted to have white thread embroidered on fabric, but the woman told me she wouldn’t do it, adding, “Son, this is a waste of time.” I ended up doing the embroidery myself, which turned into a series I’m still working on. […] “
Precisely the artist’s practice manifests a slow, concentrated and repetitive time, a time that today’s all-powerful productivity injunction would call wasted. A laborious and fragile work process that is as important as its result. This need for reinvention in the face of bankruptcy or failure also concerns the motifs of modern Western art. His reappropriation of Malevich’s white square in embroidery, for example, allows him to reinvest this canonical motif with social and political concerns, which have been progressively erased by its institutionalization even though they were inscribed in the intentions of the Russian painter. Using only white, he decolors the levels of representation, questioning the
relationship between work and visual value.The works focus more on the repetitive gesture of the needle and the repetitive process of stitch on stitch. He spends hundreds of hours, laborious and dreamy, during which he discovers the reflexive dimension of this manual practice that allows him to adopt the right tempo, the right distance from the jolts of the world and the flow of images that circulate.

There has been a constant fire for over a month is a sub-series of Son this is a waste of time, started when, exactly two years after the initial explosion, what was left of the silos in the port of Beirut, caught fire.

The new pieces testify to a certain fragility and instability that is once again taking hold in Beirut.