Series: Photographic art in Austria - Anna Jermolaewa - Good Times, Bad Times - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 2019 - 90 Euro Cent

Anna Jermolaewa – Good Times, Bad Times: A simple clock on a wall is depicted on this year’s design for the stamp from the “Photographic art in Austria” series. There are doves sitting on the clock's hands - one could easily think it is a typical cityscape that is being presented in this photo by artist Anna Jermolaewa. The “dove clock”: Untitled (Good Times, Bad Times) is a photo series from 2007, showing doves sitting on the hands of a clock on the façade of a building while all around them is grey city life. For all it appears simple and peaceful, the scenery is loaded with symbolism. While at a quarter to five the doves are still nestled companionably on the minute hand, just ten minutes later the ground has quite literally disappeared from beneath their feet. A quarter to three – the time shown on the stamp – is obviously a particularly good time for the doves, because at that time the almost horizontally positioned minute and hour hands are occupied by large numbers of doves. The artist: Anna Jermolaewa was born in 1970 in the Russian city of St. Petersburg. She was forced to leave Russia in 1989 because of her political activities, ultimately making her new home in Vienna. In 2002 she graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, where she had studied under Peter Kogler. Since 2018 she has been the professor of experimental art at the University of Art and Design in Linz. The artist primarily works with the media photography, video and installations. Her main interest is the analysis of functional social structures; complex political and social situations are condensed into powerful metaphors through accurate film compositions. A frequently cryptic humour means that they are often received as readily accessible, but there is always an underlying highly critical potential. Animals are a frequently recurring theme in Anna Jermolaewa’s work – like the doves in the photo series from which the stamp’s design is taken. Careful and precise observation of animal behaviours is used by the artist to create poetic metaphorical images of life and the changeability of human existence, so that each and every person can identify with it.