Two Seas

Two Seas

Reem Acason

A multidisciplinary exhibition celebrating the cross-pollination of coastal cultures.

Bahrain, ‘two seas’, birthplace of artist Reem Acason.

Multi-disciplinary artist and educator Reem Acason spent most of her life living in the Southeast of England with trips back to Bahrain to visit family. This work explores the human experience of living between countries and her own mixed British Bahraini heritage. 

Incorporating materials collected on her travels and bought in souks; from paper made from Bahraini date palm fronds to old fishing nets from the Sussex coastline; her artworks play on the inextricable connection between personal memories, maritime history, movement, ecology, trade and migration. 

Her oil paintings are heavily inspired by portraits of the western tradition and include animals and patterns with symbolic meaning.

Two Seas flows in a multitude of directions; as the polarised views of the sea, to the two coastal homelands of the artist, or the freshwater Medway River flowing into the Thames estuary and the salty North Sea. Identities, histories, and perspectives merge and contrast ultimately resting at the point of overlap.