
Shona Illingworth completed her research and production residency with Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities
Shona spent two weeks in March filming in Bahraini landscapes. She spent much of her time in the desert, an intense work environment of oil and gas fields. In winter, this area becomes an annual place of leisure with hundreds of tent encampments interspersed with the dense network of oil pipes, derricks and gas plants. Bahraini people have for generations spent time there in the cooler months under the wide but now rapidly changing desert sky.
Her exploration of airspace, its accelerating transformation, its composition, and deeper cultural histories, considers the increasingly complex impact it has on our lives. This investigation in Bahrain took her to an ongoing archaeological excavation, meteorological station and once rich fishing grounds.
During her time there, she spoke with experts on managing civilian airspace, long-term effects of atmospheric pollution and the impact recent conflicts in other parts of the Gulf have had on the growing intensity and scale of dust storms that travel in from the west.
Shona worked with young children to see what they thought of what was up there. In response, they drew a busy space filled with many suns, planets, stars and technology. For them, the sky was not empty or abstract.
Through the Sky Forum, Shona brought together a diverse group of experts to discuss the changing sky. For meteorologist Mahmood Al Shargawi observing the sky through the matrix of technology is his profession. Architect Ali Karimi observed a radical shift in the relationship to the Gulf sky from the intimate and familial connection to a small horizontal plane above the courtyard of a traditional Bahraini home to the impersonal, corporate and iconic vertical plane of the skyscraper. For archaeologist Steffen Laursen the circadian rhythms of the sky are reflected in the remains of ancient civilizations and for urbanist Mohammed bin Nasser Al Khalifa increasing levels of pollution present both urgent challenges and opportunities for positive change.
The Wapping Project and Shona would like to thank Shaikh Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Alyazeya Abdulmalek, Khalil Ali Al Haddad and the whole team at Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities and Bahrain National Museum.
Shona Illingworth’s residency in Bahrain was hosted and organised by Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities. Topologies of Air is generously supported by the British Council, DCMS and GREAT through the UK-Gulf Culture and sport programme.

