Adhari Mythopoeia, 2022
Serigraphy Print on 50x66 cm Paper
Adhari Mythopoeia is a serigraphic photography series that investigates Ain Adhari, as a site of overlapping mythologies. Adhari, a natural spring in Bahrain, is a landmark freshwater spring in Bahrain that has dried up since the 1980s yet remains imprinted in the collective memory of those who witnessed it at its most fertile. This site carries a lineage of associations with different folktales, historical accounts, and ecological intervention or lack thereof - leading to its continued significance and sentimentality in Bahrain.
Alsaie recalls hearing about the mystical oasis through her grandmother, however, without having experienced it in its vitality, she draws on different accounts and her own imagination to recreate the site as a fictionalized entity. The work contemplates the mythological curiosity of the site, particularly its alchemic properties that have been linked to several folktales. Alsaie uses the serigraphy method to transform the photographs into a series of manual utterances, an attempt to capture the hearsay of the folktale itself. Treading fiction and reality, satire and artifact, mythology and memory, the photographs invite a critical lens to popularized Bahraini folklore and the legacy of Adhari as a now non-existent/ defunct site.
Serigraphy Print on 50x66 cm Paper
Adhari Mythopoeia is a serigraphic photography series that investigates Ain Adhari, as a site of overlapping mythologies. Adhari, a natural spring in Bahrain, is a landmark freshwater spring in Bahrain that has dried up since the 1980s yet remains imprinted in the collective memory of those who witnessed it at its most fertile. This site carries a lineage of associations with different folktales, historical accounts, and ecological intervention or lack thereof - leading to its continued significance and sentimentality in Bahrain.
Alsaie recalls hearing about the mystical oasis through her grandmother, however, without having experienced it in its vitality, she draws on different accounts and her own imagination to recreate the site as a fictionalized entity. The work contemplates the mythological curiosity of the site, particularly its alchemic properties that have been linked to several folktales. Alsaie uses the serigraphy method to transform the photographs into a series of manual utterances, an attempt to capture the hearsay of the folktale itself. Treading fiction and reality, satire and artifact, mythology and memory, the photographs invite a critical lens to popularized Bahraini folklore and the legacy of Adhari as a now non-existent/ defunct site.
