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For his fourth consecutive solo presentation at Abu Dhabi Art, Abdus Salaam, with THK Gallery, presents ينْ ُح ُرو ُف ا ْل َع(Hurūf al-ʿAyn), translated as Letters of Essence. This sculptural installation explores the entanglement of language, materiality, and spiritual cognition in an age increasingly defined by artificial intelligence.
The representation draws from the Huruf al-Muqaṭṭaʿāt, the disjoined letters that open several chapters of the Qur’an. As Salaam explains, these phonetic fragments are “recited yet never fully interpreted [and] carry a resonance that exceeds linguistic meaning.” He approaches them as vibrational forms through which “sound becomes matter, and matter becomes thought,” transforming the hurūf into sculptural articulations of presence and potentiality. Here, language is not simply communication; it becomes an act of creation.
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The works comprise of hand-carved marble spheres and reliefs. The centerpiece, Qiblah, embodies the dialogue between devotion and data. Its rippling surface evokes both the collective act of prayer, each vibration a measure of intention and alignment, and the Bloch sphere, the geometric model used to visualize quantum states. Through this dual reference, Salaam situates spiritual focus and quantum computation within a shared logic of relational coherence, where unseen structures shape both devotion and probability.
Salaam also positions his work against the materiality of artificial intelligence, integrating quartz, copper, and aluminium, materials foundational to computational hardware, alongside stone. He suggests a continuum between technological and spiritual architectures, asserting that human awareness and intention remain “distinct, luminous, and irreducible,” even amid the rise of machine cognition. His sculptures trace the Fitri (Primordial) experience of humanity, reflecting fertility, family, community, pilgrimage, life, and death, offering meditations on the enduring qualities that define human existence.
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Historically, Abu Dhabi Art has been a platform for dialogue between cultural memory, contemporary artistic innovation, and the region’s rich spiritual traditions. Salaam’s installation resonates deeply within this context. By drawing upon Islamic textual heritage, global scientific paradigms, and contemporary material practices, Letters of Essence bridges local and global histories, suggesting that art can navigate both the ancient and the emergent.
In Letters of Essence, Salaam articulates a reality in which “phonemic frequencies are the Divine qubits of existence.” The Qiblah/Bloch Sphere crystallizes this convergence: spiritual connection, quantum possibility, and the underlying patterns of reality coalesce into a single point of resonance, where individual focus, like qubits in superposition, produces emergent order.
Across Abu Dhabi Art, Salaam invites viewers to consider language and matter not as fixed systems but as living archives, a space where sound, intention, and material interplay to sustain consciousness and human connectivity in a technologically accelerated world. Salaam in Abu Dhabi articulates a reality in which “phonemic frequencies are the Divine qubits of existence.”
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