Abdus Salaam
Stone sculptor
Cape Town, South Africa
Carving softness out of stone
- Abdus hand carves stone into sensual sculptures
- He mostly uses a direct carving method, working without sketches or models
- He has completed residencies in South Africa, Italy and the USA
Abdus Salaam’s formative years were spent playing with clay and stones in riverbeds, laying the foundation for his present-day practice: using local materials intuitively. Self-taught, he began his career with abstract photography and painting before carving his first stone work in 2021, a 1.5-metre-tall sandstone sculpture. “It came naturally to me. My Waldorf education helped, but a lot of my work is intuitive: good hand-eye coordination, ambidexterity, and an obsession with craft,” he explains. Abdus converted to Islam when he was nine years old, which influences the themes in his work alongside humanity, philosophy and natural beauty." As assistive technologies develop, I see the human hand in the art of carving as vital, with the gruelling physicality of the process being an integral part of the craft," he says. His work has been exhibited in South Africa, the USA, Germany, Denmark, the UAE and Italy.
INTERVIEW
In fifth grade, you start woodwork at Waldorf and I carved an egg out of wood. That was the first sculpture that I remember making. I thought to myself 'I am not just playing, I am making a sculpture.'
The highest value, in my opinion, is work that comes from the artist’s own hands. When the artist is removed from the physicality, object, and material, something is lost. If I love something, I want to touch it all the time, interact with it constantly. Were I to remove myself from the work, I would lose something essential.
You need to be extremely physically capable, patient and accepting of things going very wrong. Stone carving requires lots of time and money as tools are very expensive and break every few months. Space is also key, because you make an unbelievable amount of noise and dust. Finally, being able to see something beautiful in nothing is also at the core of my craft.
Art is like a road sign: yield, stop, go. I see my work as a sign on the path for people. Though it is extreme, it is also beautiful and simple. I hope to give people just a moment in which they feel free from anger, angst and fear that is so present in our culture.
