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A machine gun on wheels, filled with condoms instead of bullets, races across the poster. The title of the work, Meet AIDS Fully Armed!!!, and the inscription below the weapon, “Only safe sex,” play with the metaphor of the war on AIDS as an actual battle that requires the use of condoms as the means to win the war. Unknown, Meet AIDS Fully Armed!!!, n.d.
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The dates that appear on this painting reference the years of World War II, known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War. The figures in the center are hugging each other. They are surrounded on all sides by light-colored candles painted over dark brown rectangles, reminiscent of coffins. The overlapping hands of the hugging figures, as well as their melancholic facial expressions, are scratched into the surface rather than painted. The sad embrace, in conjunction with the candles and coffins, pays homage to the high number of casualties of the war.
Sergei Alexandrov, 1941–1945, 1990
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Stalin and Hitler stand side by side, each with one arm outstreched. The inscription at the top reads “ПартайGenossen,” which translates as “Party-Comrades.” The parallels between German and Soviet politics of terror mirror the link between the two leaders who have been handcuffed together in this poster.
Alexander Vaganov, Party-Comrades, 1991
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