"Shooting"

(left)

Digital Video (DVD), color, sound, 1:04 min, loop

signed on certificate

Shooting deals with the double meaning of the verb "to shoot", which refers both to shooting a gun and filming with a camera. In both cases something is directed at someone. Equipped with protective goggles and headphones, it is the artist herself who aims an automatic gun at the viewer from the front. On the second screen we see a video camera on a tripod. Who or what is it focusing on? In its supposedly observing position, the camera duplicates the function of the recipient and thus creates an eerie triangular relationship. The first shot is fired and, after some delay, causes a disturbance of the image. A second shot superficially decides the supposed duel in favour of the artist, the camera produces only white noise. In fact, however, it is the video camera that remains in the picture, and the artist has disappeared from it. With Shooting, Jermolaewa refers to the abysmal potential of the "shot" video image, which, in the service of surveillance and abuse of power, sometimes turns an apparently harmless camera into a dangerous weapon.
(Alexandra Hennig)