Growth

Midwan: Growth emerges as a deeply personal and cultural reflection, rooted in the artist's connection to his birth city, Madinah, a place where palm trees are not merely part of the landscape, but enduring symbols of identity, generosity, and survival. The series was conceived during a time when the drawing or planting of palm trees in the streets and gardens of Saudi Arabia was restricted, an event that quietly transformed the symbol of the palm from a familiar presence into an absence. In response, Abdul Rahman Taha reimagined the palm as a structure of resilience, an architectural and cultural form that resists erasure through art. Inspired by the first palm-tree columns that built the city of Madinah, the work highlights the architectural importance of the palm as a natural column designed to carry and distribute load, a foundation upon which early communities were physically and spiritually built. By merging the form of the palm tree with the motion of the spinning top, Midwan explores how growth is cyclical, not linear, an ongoing act of balance, struggle, and renewal. Ultimately, Midwan: Palms invites viewers to reconnect with nature as wisdom and architecture as memory, reminding us that what appears as restriction can also spark reinvention.