"It. That incomprehensible nebulous cloud. That bone-chilling deep dern. That malign devastator. That reptile that digs your muscles and twines your soul to a salt swamp. That invader that cloaks you and sticks to your skin. It. Muted and thunderous. Non-substantial, inexpressible and immense. Viscid, oily and infested. Colorless, it colors you. It stains your breath and cells. It encroaches you in a second that weighs an eternity. It asphyxiates your voice and excavates your chest. It compresses your brain and narrows the universe down to the point of deletion. It pulls you to a cloud of uncertainty, of lostness. It blocks your feeling of existence and leaves you floating in life, withdrawn into a massive absence. It takes you to the no-time, to the no-place."

Adlita Stephan

To speculate that darkness is subjected to a crossing is hopeful, since its crossing insinuates that darkness is but a temporary condition. The artist's contemplation of the states of the obscure, though anchored in darkness, still deludes a certain light.

In “Al Daken Wa ‘Oubouroh” translated to Darkness and its Crossing, Adlita Stephan undoubtedly forces the spectators to question and baptize themselves in differing shades of tenebrosity. The exhibition is then transformed into an immersive experience where one is involuntarily transcended into forms of the obscure.

Stephan sets out to explore darkness through a mesmerizing text, the central piece of her exhibition. Darkness then ceases to be regarded only as a hue, but also as a deeper condition. The visitors are invited to reconsider their own vision of the dark. Experiencing her work then transforms the spectator into a prism through which darkness can be divided and explored in its infinite spectrum.

The work seamlessly incorporates the Arabic language, in its richness, as a medium, and simultaneously utilizes it to assemble varying layers of darkness. The trinity found in the selection of the Eggs canonizes the state of the dark and engages the viewer to envision the obscure divergently.

Stephan’s exhibition carries us on gloaming clouds with a certain uncertainty, which may leave us withdrawn into a massive absence. Yet, the temporality of this condition, with its shifts, continues to be optimistic.

Rasha Itani, curator