Time runs - and runs off. For so long that it resists meaning. That can be frightening.

El Haik's repetitive lining up of signs measures time - as does the void between the lines. And not just the time of the physical doing, of this act of drawing/writing.

Musical scores do about the same and it's not surprising that El Haïk studied composition before she turned to drawing. She still writes music. And both, her music and her drawings, by introducing measure to time, effectively set and extend time.

The show 'Time Lines' presents some of El Haïk's more recent drawings. Eventually just a few lines of meaningless signs. Minimalist repetition with little variations, except for the way in which lines relate to each other, the way they organise and compose a sheet of paper, a series of sheets, or eventually an entire booklet.

Timelines more generally are about getting in command of time, keeping it from just running. It's about control, about being "in time" (or a bit late) and escaping from how time can be frightening.

Control of time and of the physical self, that draws, is a key theme also for El Haïk's Time Lines. Her drawings are in time, but it's the slow and stretched time repetition sets.

Text by Helmut Bauer