Righteousness Flows Through The Window

Oil paint on canvas For Yusuf, the checkered motif has evolved over time. Initially used in his paintings as a shading technique, then a visual memory of a chess board, he began to notice the pattern on walks, on cars, on floors and on flags. The study of a checkered flag caught by the wind, the altering of squares into diamonds and other quadrilaterals, became a transmutation of form into meaning. Black and white forms become a signal, a window to see beyond the present moment, signalling the end of a race: the racing driver’s task fulfilled, but the car has not yet come to a stop. Similarly, gestural muddy-yellow stars in the foreground bring what’s far off, close. A constellation, or reference to the magis’ star, becomes the flash of cameras, an explosion of energy. This is a painterly investigation into how the archetypal symbols of racing connect to something beyond.