"ON/OFF"

Video (VHS), color, sound, 15 sec, loop

Although "ON/OFF" (1999) is chronologically one Anna Jermolaewa’s oldest works, it turned out to be the “finishing touch” in her Sofia show, both in its substance and typology. The work presents an ironical and at the same time strangely poetic commentary on one of the world’s oldest “phenomena”: the demonstration of masculinity. An erected penis presses a light switch while alternately appearing flushed with light and disappearing into the darkness in all its “might and beauty”. There are endless sexual and power connotations triggered by this simple action, many of them related to high and/or low registers of culture. Obviously the staged situation of forcing the penis to do some actual work does not only reflect the female point of view on this organ as a cult metaphor. It also reminds us of the camera’s potential to visually investigate the hidden, the private or simply the not-for-public view; to peep-hole or even spy.
(Iara Boubnova)