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What(a)rainbow

Abdulla Buhijji & Noor Alwan

'Whatrainbow' is an art piece that symbolises the traditional rituals that celebrate new brides in the "jelwa" celebrations. Inspired by Whatrainbow, a traditional Bahraini song that is sung in Jelwas, this art piece tells a story of the origins of the song. Whatrainbow a colloquial bahraini term symbolises a song that is sung while women in the traditional Jelwa wave pieces of colourful cloth upon the bride's head representative of the colours eventually merging into white. The origins of the term comes from a segment of a foreign song that goes "White rainbow while you and me". This is a great depiction of Bahrain's heritage being a melting pot of different layers of culture woven together. The art piece is depicted by different acrylic pieces of different colours placed upon each other with traditional embellishment found on the Jelwa garment Jalabeya engraved on them.

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