Faces

Altaf often divided his canvas in grids, like this oil work, Faces, showing four different individuals peeping out of their respective compartments. The presence of a fifth person is discernible in the lower left box, which makes this work appear like a snapshot of a moving bus’s window showing commuters sitting inside, also alluded to by the same direction in which the figures gaze. Is that a double-decker bus? Is that the artist himself in the lower right box? It’s a powerful story of a group of men travelling together, perhaps, to meet their respective destinies.