THK Gallery | Abdus Salaam

Artist Spotlight: Insaan: human being by Abdus Salaam. Presented by THK Gallery in collaboration with Nirox and Latitudes

Abdus Salaam in residence at Nirox Sculpture Park.

This solo exhibition features selected works by Abdus Salaam created over the course of six weeks in residence at Nirox during the month-long fast of Ramadan. The work ties together the land on which it was made, and its hominid remains, the nearby river and its polluted state, notions of our global environmental shortcomings alongside intimate and personal moments. It asks if perhaps love – or the reminder of it, being the essence of our being and therefore our sanctuary across multiple planes – might ease the anxieties, tensions, and personal fears that we project outwardly into the echo chamber of forgetfulness. 

The word انسان) Insaan) translates as human being. The words roots are انس (uns), meaning ‘intimate’ or ‘love’, and نسي) nasyia), meaning ‘forgetful’, defining the human being as both the intimate one and the forgetful one. This poetic fragrance is often alluded to by the mystics and scholars of  Islam as it so poignantly delivers us to the essence of humanity being that of love, a reality that we often forget within our terrestrial, ethereal and Divine planes.

This show runs from 22 - 26 May 2024.