Stairs to Nowhere

Because of their formal and structural appeal, stairs have always—directly or indirectly—been a subject of fascination for artists. Philosopher in Contemplation by Rembrandt, the impossible stairs^* in Escher’s lithographs, the Odessa Steps sequence in Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin, and Henri Cartier-Bresson’s Cyclist photograph each presents different interpretations of the stair. Stairs that, more often than not, serve as a pretext for seeing or reaching something beyond. Katayoun Karami’s photograph, however, is about the stairs themselves. And while it carries echoes of those earlier works, it ultimately takes us nowhere. Through numbers and forward-pointing arrows of film perforation in her diptychs, she pulls us back and forth—yet remains fixed in place. The image hesitates—between staying and going, between which frame to choose in the uncertainty of the moment.