Habeeb Mohammed Abu-Futtaim
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Floor Sweeping (2023-present)
Mukhtar Hassan & Habeeb M. Abu-Futtaim
Plaster bits, dust, dirt, broomFloor Sweeping emerged from a period of profound disillusionment with the conventions of studio practice and the commodification of art within institutional frameworks. Confronted by the pervasive influence of Western art paradigms and the art world's insular economies—where creation often serves the expectations of elite audiences—I found myself questioning the very foundations of my practice. This rupture was further deepened by the outbreak of the war in Gaza, which rendered the act of art-making itself fraught with ethical unease. The suggestions I recieved to transform such crises into artistic content felt like an appropriation of suffering, reducing lived realities to mere narrative devices.
In response, I stopped producing work in the traditional sense, engaging instead in a daily ritual of sweeping my studio—a silent act of refusal and reflection. Yet, within this gesture of erasure, a new form of practice quietly surfaced, a different type. of drawing. Floor Sweeping is not an artwork in the conventional sense; it is an index of absence, an archaeology of process, and an inquiry into what remains when the compulsion to produce is relinquished. Furthermore, an integral role in this was played by Mukhtar Hassan, who was part of the evening janitorial team in the building who grew curious of what I was doing. I confessed that I did not know it either, inviting him to join the process, so we can perhaps find out together. Each morning, I would sweep and leave something behind, and each evening, he would come and add to the gesture, leaving traces of our presence, a silent language of gestures. Over almost a year, this act of meaningful ritual, a shared rhythm of gathering and dispersing, transcended function. It became a shared art, a communion—the ritual became our practice, a quiet conversation and a friendship within this exchange.
Over a year of sharing this practice and documenting, Hassan started picking up art making materials and started his own exploration and practice without any of my assistance and without any background of any art making or exposure to art.
Selected works from the series