Habeeb Mohammed Abu-Futtaim
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Salt Bricks (2016)
20 cm (each, approx.)Salt, pigment This work reflects on the fragility and artificial nature of identities, particularly national ones. It challenges their supposed solidity by transforming the strong, unchanging symbols of Arab flags into fragile, crumbling forms made of salt, a substance that is at once essential and impermanent. Drawn from the saline waters that surround much of the Arab world, salt embodies both life and decay, formation and dissolution. Yet even in their fragility, these repeating forms echo the way such identities are continually reproduced, constantly negotiating whether repetition makes them more real, or merely sustains an idealistic illusion.
In their broken state, the colors and shapes lose their official power, becoming traces, abstract remains of what they once signified. Symbols hold no fixed meaning, only shifting interpretations, always vulnerable to change, erosion, and questioning.