Materials Rigidity
Within the work of Majd Abdel Hamid, embroidery is an act of considering. A relentless course of that originally chased perfection however, over time, tempered into one thing extra fluid, extra accepting of unravelling. A follow that’s nonetheless compulsive however that now resists the restrictions of finality.
Over the past decade, Majd has sustained an ongoing behavior of white-on-white embroidery. These works, a small collection of which floor in “On White”, hint a journey spanning greater than 100 items, every the results of lengthy hours of meticulous labour.
The repetition of white thread stacking over a white floor is just like the gradual progress of a ghost backyard, silent however persistent. On this, there’s a sort of psychosis, an unfolding the place time stretches and collapses within the rhythm of the needle shifting out and in of cloth. The work calls for wanting, wanting once more, wanting intently, wanting with the physique. Shadows type the place threads rise, textures emerge solely when the sunshine shifts.
These small works evade imposed which means. Guided by intuition quite than premeditated construction, every sew reads like a gestural stroke in a portray. Spontaneous composition and the bodily negotiation of fabric transfer by way of a register resonant with archetypal abstraction.
Although not conceived as a single physique of labor, these fragments exist aside from Majd’s extra visible imagery, which has included types, figures, private and political motifs. Whereas intrinsically tied to him, these components are absent from the non-representational white-on-white works, making this physique a definite and separate archive of his creativeness. Proven collectively for the primary time, they catalogue the minimal imprint of arms releasing power into being.
—Saira Ansari, March 2025
at Gray Noise, Dubai
till June 4, 2025
