PUBLIC spaces, agriculture and the wonder of fresh water springs in Bahrain were the focus of examination in a frank discussion of the ‘meaning of green’ at Folk Art Space, Sehla, focusing on a celebrated book on the subject.
Led by Bahraini documentary photographer Mariam Al Arab, the review session delved into a book by renowned Irish landscape architect Dr Gareth Doherty.
“Paradoxes of Green: Landscapes of a City-State is an ethnography which analyses greenery in Bahrain, written by a Harvard University researcher,” said Ms Al Arab.
“Dr Doherty explored the idea of ‘landscape’ through a collection of short stories and vignettes about Bahraini farmers he spoke to during his one-year stay in the country.”
This innovative multi-disciplinary study considers the concept of green from multiple perspectives – aesthetic, architectural, environmental, political, and social – in the kingdom, where green has a long and deep history of appearing cooling, productive and prosperous – a radical contrast to the hot and hostile desert.
Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork, Dr Doherty explored the landscapes of Bahrain, where, he suggested, green represented a ‘plethora of implicit human values and exists in dialectical tension with other culturally and environmentally-significant colours and hues’.
Explicit in his book is the argument that concepts of colour and object are mutually defining and thus a discussion about green becomes a discussion about the creation of space and place.
The reviews of the book, published in 2017, were positive. ‘Beautifully written’ said Landscape Architecture Magazine and the Middle East Journal glowed: “This work should be considered a major achievement for its exploration of the diverse landscapes of Bahrain and their continuous production and transformation, presented in an accessible manner which, nevertheless, does not reduce its challenging complexity.”
Ms Al Arab guided the attendees along in a lively conversation about the significance of colours in local environment and culture.
The book spurred a debate about deeply-intertwined relationship between water and farmland – blue and green – going all the way back to ancient times.
More than 30 people participated in the event organised by ‘Architects Read,’ a collective that periodically hosts discussions about architecture-related books.
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