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A group of writers and poets have teamed up with several artists from across the kingdom to stage a colourful and expressive showcase to encourage and inspire future creative collaborations.
The ‘Confluence - Where Words and Images Meet’ has been organised by the Bahrain Writers’ Circle (BWC) and will be launched on Saturday on the second floor of Harbour Gate, Bahrain Financial Harbour. It is open from 11am-8pm, admission is free and it will run until May 2.
The joint venture initiative was the brainchild of Rohini Sunderam, a founding member of BWC, and the event’s name was created by member, Preeti Rana.
The exhibition will feature around 33 works of art inspired by the words created by 23 teams of writers and artists. The BWC has two sub-groups, The Second Circle – a poetry group and the Creative Writers’ Workshops – which explores the craft of writing.
Claudia Hardt, a PR and communication consultant, who plays an active role helping to organise BWC activities, together with her colleagues Rohini and Gunner Gunderson, said: “This event is important to our members as it gives them an opportunity to showcase their talent for writing and, in some cases, their artistic prowess.
“It’s also an opportunity for artists to collaborate with writers, and, as our patron Sheikha Lulwa Al Khalifa puts it … ‘this will encourage the building of more bridges of appreciation and collaboration between the arts’.
“We hope to achieve just that – to encourage more local and expat artists and writers to join together and express creativity in new and exciting ways.”
British author Sarah Clarke, who penned two celebrated books featuring her therapy dog, Baloo, has teamed up with Murali, the head of governor and engine controls at a ship repair company, his wife Raji, a teacher and blogger, and their son, Sanjay, nine, to create poetry pieces.
Sanjay wrote a poem about a deflated superman balloon found floating in the sea. Murali, an award-winning Tamil poet, produced an entry in his native tongue inspired by the photographs Sarah took of rubbish washing up during a dog walk with her pet, Duba, and beach clean-up called Out of Place ...Pathless, Crazy in the Sea.
This work has also been translated into English with Sarah and his family’s help. They called on Noha Mousa, an Egyptian art teacher, to create an art piece for the event.
Murali, 39, from Hoora, said: “The confluence of writers and artists working together is a unique experience and helps give birth to new ideas.”
Sarah added: “Through including others we learn so much – it can only improve our creativity and also help us to understand others better.
“When words fail, art speaks. We do not need to know another language to communicate.”
To find out more about BWC, visit them on www.bahrainwriterscircle.net
Out of Place …
Pathless, crazy in the sea
Translated by Sarah Clarke & E.M. Sri Rajeshwari from an original poem in Tamil by S. Muralidharan
I helped you walk from here to there
And the world with me you did share
Yet after our bond you left me alone
Wondering why and where you had flown
Our miles together made our hearts soar
Without each other the way a chore
And now that you have abandoned me
I find myself pathless, crazy in the sea
Laying in the waves she speaks to me
Explaining what she seeks to be
Her bounty she gives without restraint
Life and livelihood for many, no complaint
She spies a child playing, kisses his feet
Rocking back and forth with joy replete
Transformed into a child without hesitation
Though she the biggest of your global nation
She is mother to life within her
Feeding all their growth to spur
Yet when angry she engulfs all in her path
Warning of the care needed for your world to last
Rainbows, moon, sun and clouds
Reflect their beauty in her to watching crowds
People though notice something amiss
A view dulled without purity and bliss
Marred by things that tarnish the sea
Things like me left for eternity
You who owned, repaired and cleaned me,
Even showed me how to be free
Forgot to care for where you have been
The places we walked and have seen
She was created beautiful and whole
Why didn’t you respect her as she was so?
After giving much to you
I will not despair or be blue
She has preserved my lonely footprint
So you may find a mysterious hint
Of you and me and where we went
And what was lost since the time we spent.
