Born 1980, Iran

2007 / BFA, Fine Art

Department, Bezalel Academy

of Arts and Design,

Jerusalem

Elham Rokni in conversation with Liat Lavi:

Liat: What I find interesting in your two latest works, a video in which a car drives in complete darkness with no lights (Clavileño), and another video (Untitled) in which an image is stamped on the skin and gradually fades over an hour or so, is that both challenge the sight. They offer a duration, without imposing it, and in that duration of time they offer variants of the same image. Not big dramas, but rather more of the same thing – the same type of stimulation, at the same point, perhaps in the hope of reaching a climax, only a climax is not guaranteed.
 
Elham: I think both wish to erase the image. The difference is that the skin reaches a climax, the image is indeed erased, whereas in the drive work, any moment holds a potential for a climax, or wants to be the climax itself. A prolonged climax without any release.
 
L: That is not accurate; the image is never completely erased, since the image is the body. The image stamped on the body disappears, and reveals what is underneath.
 
E: You are right, the image beneath the image is exposed.
What lies beneath the darkness in Clavileño?
 
L: Two simultaneous processes take place in the drive. On the one hand – static, endless repetition, another tree, more sky, more darkness, without getting anywhere; on the otherhand – the eyes slowly get accustomed to the darkness, something gets clearer. Not in the image, but in the seeing mechanism. 
 
E: The opposite takes place in the skin work, here the eyes get accustomed to the stamped image and don’t register the changes taking place.
 
L: Which leads me to ask about your attitude towards the viewer. In the skin work the duration is unreasonable. It is hard to expect the viewer to watch the entire work, a viewer could perhaps skip through parts, maybe even guess the ending.
This makes the viewer a part of the work, the sequence depends on him. In the work with the darkness one can also ask what do you give the viewer, whatsort of a relationship do you establish with him, is he supposed to have the experience with you?
 
E:  In the skin work the gaze is turned on a plastic action, the fading of animage stamped on the skin; obviously I don’t expect anyone to watch it all the way through. The viewer can go away, come back, observe the changes. The work changes in the course of an hour, enticing you to come back and check whether any changes took place and what those changes are. In both works the duration depends on the viewer. In the darkness work I offer an experience, in the skin work the temptation to stay or the reluctance to leave are greater. Only once he is accustomed to the darkness, to the image, to the space, will the viewer decide what to do: to stay, experience, understand or give up and leave. In any case, although I identify similar lines in both works, they are still propelled by different motivations, they do not offer the same things and they establish different relations with the viewer. 
 
[Liat Lavi is a friend].