Walking drunk in high shoes

Date: 2010
Length: 47:22 min.
Format:  PAL, 16:9
Specification: Color, Sound

A camera placed at a very low angle shows, from the waist down, a woman's body clad in a red dress, black tights and black heels. The figure in the background contrasts with a bottle of vodka stationed in the proximity of the camera’s eye. The woman starts walking towards the viewer, following the trajectory of the wooden floor planks that frame the whole videoscape in a one-point perspective. She walks back and forth, twice, in a straight line, as if providing a reference point against which the following movements will be judged. Starting on her third run, the woman stops in the foreground, takes a sip of vodka and returns to her initial position.
The camera’s eye transforms into a voyeuristic peephole, as the viewer observes the woman getting progressively more drunk. She gradually loses her balance, starting to writhe and cringe, thus revealing more of her body and her face. At some point it becomes apparent that it is the artist herself who is acting out the scene. Paradoxically, the viewer discovers the identity of the actor only after her upright position collapses under the weight of inebriation – a telling suggestion that true subjectivity can only be revealed at the time of its utmost vulnerability.
Razmi's work refers back to both Bruce Nauman's explorations of physicality and space exemplified in his video “Stamping in the studio” and Tracy Emin's monoprint “Walking Drunk in High Shoes”.

OC

Interview:

► 1. Your video has been chosen among over 1700 festival entries to participate in Videonale 13. How central is the video medium to your overall artistic production? Is it complimentary to other media you use or do you work exclusively with video?

I’m working with different media, but often with video.

► 2. Is there a particular theme, concept or problem your art addresses the most?

In my work I’m interested in strategies of appropriation, manipulation and performance as a device for investigating and questioning existing pictures and stereotypes concentrating on political and social questions in a strained relationship of Iran and Western culture.

► 3. What artists do you relate to or find significant for your own art-making?

My works are often based on direct relations to other artist’s works. The chosen work “Walking Drunk in High Shoes” is connected to a monoprint by Tracey Emin with the same title.

► 4. Do you think the video medium can address social or political issues better than other art media?

No

► 5.Art can be seen as a mirror that registers and reflects life or as a tool that transforms it. Which of the two positions is close to your own art-making philosophy?

For me reflection ever since has been transformation. I find it very exciting to consciously manipulate this transition.

► 6. How do you understand success in an art-making career?

Trying not to stop working on projects that are important to me

► 8. What are your upcoming projects?

At the moment I’m working on finishing the “Paykan Projects” that deals with the difficulties of the import of Iranic Paykan cars from Tehran to Germany by land. The projects plays with the iconic value of the car and its different cultural relations including various media and references.

► 9. What do you do when you don't make art?

No hobbies