In Isn’t It About Time, Raina Stephan‘s (CRF 2024) solo show at Marfa’ Projects, the artist considers how science fiction and editing both orbit around the notion of time. Appropriating the methods of an editor—part detective, part cinephile—Raina investigates how images collide and collude, multiply and subtract.
The collection blends images produced by the artist with fragments of reassembled film and television. While her preferred materials often come from the history of cinema, her work also regularly engages with the turbulent history of Lebanon. In this exhibition this is particularly evident in “Wreckage of History” (2026), four stacked screens, each looping images of explosions that marked Beirut in 1983, 2006, 2020, and 2024. The explosion also appears in the “Double Moons” series.
Despite the war, Isn’t It About Time is on view at Marfa’ Projects until April 10th.
Photos by Youssef Itani/Studio Tajareb, courtesy of Marfa’ Projects and Raina Stephan.