Sunday 27 December 2009

Nationalism



As I returned to Bahrain for a quick holiday, I noticed that there was a re-branding wave across the country which caught up with BTV and Batelco logos, perhaps commemorating the 10 years passed since our King came to the throne.

Amidst all the advertising boards on the highways, I was captivated by Batelco’s add near Seef Mall, which had the above picture; two hands, one red and the other white, coming together forming the flag of the Kingdom of Bahrain. The way in which the hands interlock with each other is very forceful, whenever I try it, I do have to force the knuckles through until there are no gaps. Yet the resulting bind is equally unbreakable. I almost sense that I need more force to take my hands away from each other than bring them together. Is there a political statement behind this gesture? Well Arabs generally like to bring politics in everything, so I might be reading way too far into it if I said so.

Nevertheless, the image is strikingly beautiful, whenever I pass the billboard on the highway it stays in my head throughout the journey. The brightness of the colors and the texture of the human hand’s skin made it a beautiful abstract piece of art. This is the first time that I actually saw the beauty of our national flag.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Bash Mohandess,
Your blog is amazingly interesting with all the links provided. Well researched and totally cutting-edge-contemp,what do you actually do ?
Thank you for mentioning my article on your blog, I was very touched that you actually bothered to read it!
There is no contact email provided on your blog,mine is
myanni60@gmail.com
Cheers,
Maie Yanni

Bash Mohandis said...

Hi Maie

I'm glad you liked my blog and thank your for the kind words. I have to say that when I visited the Egyptian pavillion in Venice I was amazed by the work and could not really find the correct words to describe it, not until I stumbled on your article where I found the perfect words.

I am an architecture student right now hoping to graduate this summer. I sent you an email so I hope we can stay in touch.

Kind Regards

Anonymous said...

i do agree with maie...do hope can befriend with you also bash mohandis. i am malaysian asst architect working in saudi arabia.
enjoy reading your blog.
faizolizanbinmorat@yahoo.com.my
regards,
Faizol Izan

Bash Mohandis said...

Hi Faizol

Thanks for visiting and reading my blog. I hope you are enjoying architectural work at Saudi Arabia and would stay in touch. I tried sending you an email but it failed... I guess there might be a miss-spelling or something in the address you gave me. I tried again so let me know if you do receive my email.

Regards