Swedish-Iraqi artist Rim Albahrani is showcasing her ‘houses of memories’ as she holds her first exhibition in Bahrain at Folk Art Space in Sehla.
Titled ‘Built Elsewhere’, the expo features a series of bronze sculptures and silkscreen prints that examine the ‘conceptual tensions surrounding home, memory, and identity’.
According to Ms Albahrani, her artworks are not about architecture, but rather the memories and identities that take space, settle and shift through form.
“The shape of a house, for me, is both symbol and site,” the New-York based artist told the GDN.
“It carries the tension between permanence and change, between rootedness and movement. It is a space we inherit, resist and reimagine.
“It is a presence shaped through uncertainty, repetition and gestures that carry memory across time and space,” the 29-year-old who holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in art history added.
From initial sketches to the final result, the displayed works took several months to complete.
The creative worked intuitively with clay to allow each house to form and emerge gradually before casting it in bronze, resulting in the unique shapes that can be seen in both the sculptures and silkscreen prints.
Silkscreen printing is a technique in which porous fabric mesh is stretched on a frame with a stencil placed on top. The artist would pour the ink inside the frame and spread it using a blade or a squeegee, allowing the stencil shape to be formed on the fabric.
“The sculptures are grounded yet intentionally off-balance,” she said.
“That physical tilt carries an emotional weight. It reflects what it feels like to live between places, to adapt while still holding onto fragments of somewhere else.
“While the sculptures are solid and structured, the prints behave more like echoes. They are layered, faded and fragmented. They are never complete images, but gestures towards memory and absence, shaping how we move through the world.”
She said that being raised by artists and surrounded by creative processes inspired her to start painting as a child. However, her understanding of art as a language began to deepen in her early twenties.
Ms Albahrani explains that in her art, space and memory are prominent themes that reflect her personal experience of frequently relocating, as she was born in Jordan and raised across Yemen, Sweden, Qatar and the United Kingdom.
She found Bahrain to be the appropriate home for the exhibition due to her admiration for the local art community, which she finds to be highly perceptive and welcoming.
“Bahrain has a history of engaging with modern and contemporary art from the region in a way that is both thoughtful and resonant,” she said.
“My father, Ahmed Albahrani, exhibited here more than two decades ago. Returning with my own work carries a continuity that feels meaningful.
“There is also a historical and cultural connection between Iraq – my country of origin – and Bahrain, and that link carries resonance for me.”
The painter and sculptor hopes her creations would inspire the audience to think about the concept of home differently and reflect on their sense of presence.
She also hopes they will resonate with those who have not been able to define it through a single location or narrative.
“The works do not aim to offer closure. They create space. If someone who has felt unsettled, dislocated, or caught between identities can see themselves reflected here, then the work is doing what it needs to do,” she said.
“It does not mark an arrival. It proposes a way of continuing to build even when what we are building is not yet fully known.”
The expo will be held from 9am to 5pm until June 4.
rima@gdnmedia.bh
&uuid=(email))