Evolution of a Calling

Full Statement

video still from, Black Seed & Me, 2025. written, directed & filmed in collaboration with William Classic Thomas

TR7: Painter of Stories / Griot of Signs

Qur’anic Parallels and Islamic Touchpoints in the Modus Operandi of My Work

My work as an artist unfolds through what I call Field Trips to Staged Productions—a seven-phase process that moves from research to activation, sculpture to cinema. Though its form belongs to the language of contemporary art, its foundation is Qur’anic. The Qur’an offers not only belief but method: a logic of revelation, proportion, reflection, and transmission. My entire body of work—sculpture, video, sound, broadcast—operates within that architecture.

My process unfolds through a seven-phase methodology I call Field Trips to Staged Productions—Concept → Image → Sculpture → Installation → Activation → Film Short → Full-Length Film. This structure functions like a living surah: revelation, proportion, and return. Each stage builds upon the last, translating contemplation into civic expression and inquiry into public pedagogy.

Supplication and Intention

Like du‘ā, every project begins with niyyah—an inward declaration of purpose. Before fabrication, I articulate the intention so that the work carries the sincerity of prayer. This invisible preparation gives the material its ethical charge. In Islamic thought, intention precedes form; the same is true in my studio. The unseen impulse directs what becomes seen.

Iqra: Reading Creation as Site

The first word revealed to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was Iqra—“Read!”—a command not limited to text but extended to the world itself. Every Field Trip I make is an act of reading: a journey to interpret the signs embedded in civic landscapes, ruins, and ecologies. Site-responsiveness is a form of tafsīr—the interpretation of the visible world as divine manuscript.

The Unlettered and the Autodidact

The Prophet, described as al-nabī al-ummī—the unlettered messenger—received revelation without formal schooling. I recognize a parallel in my own trajectory as a self-taught artist. My autodidactic formation mirrors that same principle of direct knowing: learning through encounter, intuition, and divine prompting rather than institutional gatekeeping. Knowledge in this sense is not conferred; it is revealed through attentive seeing and listening.

Revelation as Process

The Qur’an was revealed in stages—tanzīl—over twenty-three years, responding to lived circumstances. My projects also unfold gradually: each Field Trip or Channel TR7 broadcast adds a new surah to an ongoing revelation. The process is iterative, circular, and responsive. Nothing appears all at once; meaning emerges through rhythm and recurrence.

Nonlinear Structure

The Qur’anic form itself is nonlinear—surahs interlace time, memory, and revelation. My work mirrors this syntax. In Refractured, Antidote, and Field Trips, chronology is replaced by constellation. Fragments are intentionally reordered, inviting reflection through return and echo rather than sequence. This structure aligns more with Qur’anic repetition than Western linear narrative—each work a rhizome rather than a line.

Contemplation and Reflection

The Qur’an repeatedly calls believers to tafakkur and tadabbur—to ponder the signs. My studio functions as a contemplative chamber where research, fabrication, and reflection merge. Works such as Calculating Banneker or Water as Life Force are visual sermons that ask audiences not simply to view but to reflect—to engage thinking as worship.

Reading the Signs (Āyāt)

Every element—honeycomb, radio frequency, beam of light, architectural ruin—is treated as an āyah, a sign of the Real. In my installations, I interpret these signs materially, translating cosmological truths into sculptural language. The work becomes a visible commentary, a form of tafsīr that reads the material world as scripture.

Stewardship and Khilāfah

Islam teaches that humanity is khalīfah—steward of the earth. In Monument for Honey Bees & Their Keepers, Cross Pollination, and The Hive Triptych Cell, stewardship manifests as ecological responsibility. The artist assumes the role of caretaker, merging creative practice with environmental guardianship. Each gesture becomes both civic and spiritual duty.

Unity in Multiplicity

Tawḥīd, the principle of divine unity, underlies my interdisciplinary structure. Channel TR7 unites multiple forms—film, music, performance, pedagogy—under one consciousness. Multiplicity is not fragmentation but expression of oneness. Each module, like each surah, points back to a single divine intelligence.

Balance and Measure

Mīzān—the cosmic balance—is both moral and formal. The geometry of my installations and the harmonic structure of my soundscapes echo this principle. Justice and proportion are inseparable: balance in composition becomes reflection of balance in being.

Remembrance as Practice

Dhikr—the remembrance of G’d—appears in my process through repetition. Loops of sound, recurring phrases, and revisited gestures turn artistic labor into invocation. Editing becomes litany; performance becomes remembrance.

Light as Knowledge

The Qur’an calls G’d “the Light of the heavens and the earth.” In my work, light functions as medium and message. Lens-based media become channels for Nūr al-‘Ilm—the light of knowledge. Projection and illumination operate as both revelation and reflection.

Purification and Refinement

Tazkiyah, the purification of self and form, is embedded in the studio process. Through editing, sanding, or cutting, excess is removed to reveal essence—the fitrah or innate design of the material. The act of refinement becomes devotional.

Journey and Return

Each project follows the rhythm of safar and ma‘ād—journey and return. From the field to the studio, from observation to presentation, the cycle mirrors pilgrimage: movement toward understanding and return bearing knowledge.

Collaboration as Consultation

The Qur’anic principle of shūrā—consultation—animates my collective works: Crescendo Orchestra Project, Renaissance Report Live, Sonic Sculpture Ensemble. Each ensemble operates as a circle of deliberation, mirroring the prophetic model of communal decision-making.

Endurance and Patience

Long-term projects require sabr, patience that is both spiritual and procedural. Years of iteration, filming, and reassembly are acts of endurance—a trust in timing that reflects divine measure (qadar).

Reliance and Improvisation

Tawakkul, reliance upon G’d, translates into improvisational trust. In performance and conduction, I release control and allow the unseen to shape the outcome. Improvisation becomes faith enacted in real time.

Knowledge and Wisdom

‘Ilm and hikmah—knowledge and wisdom—govern the intellectual architecture of my practice. I align the empirical study of Banneker, the civic philosophy of Imam W.D. Muhammad, and the sonic logic of Sun Ra’s cosmic architectures into one epistemic stream: wisdom as lived method.

Lineage and Ancestral Architecture

My lineage is both historical and spiritual. It extends from Benjamin Banneker’s astronomical reasoning to Imam W.D. Muhammad’s vision of human stewardship, through the artistic continuums of Terry Adkins, George E. Lewis, and Sun Ra, with the mentorship of Quentin Morris grounding this cosmology in Philadelphia’s language of disciplined abstraction. Lewis’s reclamation works and my own Exclamation Point principle share a commitment to reasserting authorship within systems of erasure. Their collective legacies—each bridging philosophy, sound, and form—constitute the ancestral architecture of my method. I see my role as continuing this relay of consciousness, where artistic practice becomes a form of Qur’anic reading through matter and time.

Ascension and Expanded Vision

The Prophet’s Isrā’ and Mi‘rāj—his night journey and ascension—find visual analogy in my multi-channel projections and layered installations. They suggest movement through levels of perception—ascending through light.

Blessing and Continuity

Barakah, the expansion of goodness, manifests in the afterlife of the work. Teaching, mentorship, and public access function as sadaqah jāriyah—ongoing benefit beyond the initial act. Art becomes a renewable form of charity.

Moderation and Justice

Ummatan wasaṭan—the balanced community—guides my tone. My critique avoids spectacle or despair, seeking equilibrium between activism and art. The principle of ‘adl, justice, is maintained through composure, ethics, and clarity of intention.

Renewal and Return

Tajdīd, renewal, defines the rhythm of my practice. Each restaging or reactivation reanimates old material with new breath, echoing the Qur’anic call to revive what has become dormant.

Spirit and Self

Nafs and rūḥ—self and spirit—frame the inner dialogue of making. The studio is both workshop and mirror. Creation becomes a practice of alignment between the physical and the metaphysical.

Truth and Structure

Haqq and ‘Arsh—truth and divine order—govern the moral and architectural integrity of my installations. Form follows revelation; structure follows cosmic law.

Expression and Clarity

Bayān, clear expression, underpins Channel TR7 and Renaissance Report Live. These broadcasts are civic sermons—acts of articulation that make the unseen audible and the abstract communal.

Community and Transmission

The Qur’anic command Qul—“Say”—is at the core of my voice as a griot. My broadcasts and performances extend revelation through language. The ummah is not audience but participant; each viewer joins the circle of remembrance.

Through Ra’oof Atelier and Channel TR7, my practice extends beyond the studio into civic space. These platforms operate as movable schools—laboratories of reflection and public pedagogy inspired by Imam W.D. Muhammad’s emphasis on beneficial knowledge. Here, art becomes a conduit for renewal, activating communities as participants in remembrance and inquiry.

Conclusion

To describe myself as a painter of stories or griot of signs is to acknowledge that my practice operates through Qur’anic intelligence. The metaphors of light, sign, journey, and balance are not poetic borrowings—they are structural principles. Each artwork is a verse in an unfolding surah of human and cosmic relation. Through these parallels, my body of work exists as a modern tafsīr—an interpretation not on paper, but in form, sound, and motion.

The Art of Beneficial Knowledge • TR7 / Ra’oof Atelier • 1447 A.H. / 2025 C.E.