Abdus Salaam’s gem stone and foraged sculptures are inspired by the natural changes of material over time and his own personal conceptual explorations from the subtle changes of water over stone to the cosmic events within our solar system, imagining how notions of entropy would shape an object over the course of millennia he follows the fractures and form of the stone, bringing out the narrative and natural beauty inherent in a given stone. Similarly, his metal sculptures are defined by the process of the sculpture’s making. This dance of the real and metaphorical is constant throughout his practice.

Salaam’s Heartwood tree ring works are a meditation on the heart unseen via the poetic beauty of trees as well as an ongoing dialog regarding the ecology of invasive species and their relationship to migration and notions of belonging. By focusing on the natural formations within, Salaam refers to our capacity for abstraction, growth and our shared malleable form. Just as trees are moved by wind, sun, and even those around them, we too are shaped by the symphony of life that surrounds us. Using sections of a fallen invasive old growth tree, sliced to reveal the growth rings Salaam suspends pigments in resin, pouring layer upon layer in a gradient binary of dark and light like the rings of summer and winter that define the life of a tree. Here, Salaam employs a brightening toward the centre void or heartwood of each piece. The artist explores the benefits and inherent beauty that even an invasive species contributes to its earthen home and ecology, questioning ideas of belonging and what it means to be invasive or native, a question that is personal to the artist as one who focuses on deep time and is himself a mixed European, African muslim. 

In the case of his ink series 'Here (Now)' the works serve to begin and end at the here and now as materially both the outer and inner realities of the work are a simple everyday canvas of vertical and horizontal strings that elude to the very fabric of the universe and the spiritual underpinnings of existence that are a balance of horizontal and vertical planes. These works are a progression within the artists practice in that most other works by the artist usually possess a binary of a darker outer reality and an inner sanctum while these works share the same tone and hue both outwardly and inwardly. Taking inspiration of the square form from the Ka'ba, the artist creates a series of squares that are possessed of meaning as a point of focus toward a reality that is both an aspiration and an omnipresent truth. 

Salaam continues his exploration of oriented strand board as a medium with his gilded works that serve as a material juxtaposition with a focus on transcendence. The board is enriched by the artist’s intuition and application of our most coveted earthly material in leaf form, gold/ platinum, a material known for possessing deep historical and other worldly connotations. By using multiple different gilding methods Salaam creates an experiential three dimensional space of movement that glows and reflects whatever stands before it. Engaging with such an unusually large object of seamless pure 24ct gold/platinum, the artist intends to invoke a primordial physical and spiritual sensation. The works are metaphorical windows into the realm of souls where forms and relationships between bodies imply movement, ascension, descension and togetherness all while being of a material that will not tarnish, fade or oxidise over time. 

Lastly are Salaam’s ‘Meaning’ performance works/action paintings in which the artist recites a particular Surah/Chapter from the Holy Quran, through out the painting process in order to imbue the work with the sensation of a given Surah. This is particularly unique to the artist as he experiences chromesthesia or sound-to-color synesthesia which is a type of synesthesia in which sound involuntarily evokes an experience of color, shape, and movement.