‘Currently’ and ‘Seed flowers’ are from a new series of paintings by Abdus Salaam that explore his love and fascination of nature, his spiritual practices and his mixed handed/ambidextrous capabilities that stem from his time as a multi-instrumentalist. Just as the brain’s hemispheres control opposing sides of the human body (eg. right hemisphere controls left hand) the angle of each mark determines with which hand the mark was made implying a work and an experience of mental and physical balance.  The form of each mark is inspired by his time spent in residence on Governors Island in New York City with The Institute for Public Architecture during the northern summer of 2023. There, Salaam explored the ecology and maritime history of the island drawing inspiration from the seed pods of the Maple trees, their form, colour, and unique flight path as they drop to the ground in a spiralling cascading pirouette. These seeds simultaneously represent the form of a water drop implying a spiritual and bodily transcendence beyond heart shattering tribulation - shown in the fragmented forms that in this case reference the Biblical and Quranic narrative of Moses and the parting of the sea and the burning bush.

The technique previously used in his OSB works for creating a sense of depth and weight with colour and hue was implemented in these works taking on a fluid wave like formation of individual marks that resemble a moving current that, in the case of his diptychs converge in the centre space between the canvases - a constant spiritual motif in the artist’s practice complimented by his use of movement, repetition/sacred monotony and organic formations in a gradient of change. Lastly, the work is oil on prepared hemp in reference to the maritime heritage of both the native and colonial history  of the United States.

Salaam’s 'Seed Flowers,’ inspired by the seeds of the maple tree, and an experimentation of the artist’s ambidextrous abilities are a folding of time and form as the artist presents a seed as a flower and a flower as a seed, an ancient sufic metaphor for life, death and our radiating efflorescent present.