A Momentum for the Horizon

A Momentum for the Horizon is a visual meditation on the horizon as both boundary and promise — a line that is always visible yet forever out of reach. Presented as an artist room at Gallery Isabelle, the exhibition brings together Alaa Itani's reverse glass paintings of horizons, blurred landscapes and drifting cloud formations, in which landscape becomes an experience of temporal displacement. This instability is built into Itani's process. Working in reverse glass painting, he applies ink to the glass and then selectively wipes and erases parts of the painted surface. Clouds, air and open sky emerge through these acts of subtraction, letting light pass freely through what has been removed. The works are at once transparent and obstructive, physically present yet visually elusive. As light travels through the transparent passages, it casts shadows and produces doubles of the painted image that appear faint, partial or momentarily displaced. The landscapes are not tied to any particular place or viewpoint. Instead, Itani treats the horizon as a recurring condition: something perceived, but never reached.