Artwork Description
Nadya Tolokonnikova – PUSSY RIOT WHITE SQUARE
Dimensions: 78.75 x 78.75″
Year: 2024
Medium: acrylic paint on canvas
N.T.: “PUSSY RIOT BLACK SQUARE” and “PUSSY RIOT WHITE SQUARE” use an ancient church slavonic calligraphy to write Pussy Riot in the revolutionary tradition of avant-garde: during the Pussy Riot’s trial in 2012 calls were made to burn Pussy Riot at the stake for heresy, witchcraft, religious hatred and attempting to destroy a thousand-year-old traditions and spiritual customs of Russia. If those imperialist traditions and customs later led to Russia invading Ukraine, then yes, it’s exactly what Pussy Riot members were seeking to destroy with their punk-prayer.
I was 15, when I started to identify as an artist. The tradition started by Malevich, Tatlin, Mayakovsky and other avant-garde artists was sacred to me. I was drawn to the type of art that had revolutionary ambitions – I guess it’s the same “Think big”, but outside of just one corporate tech product. When I started making art, I set myself an impossible goal to keep my teenage openness, curiosity, rebelliousness and naivety for the rest of my professional life – as an artist, as a philosopher. Philosophy starts with wonder, Aristotle said. I was 16, when I moved to Moscow to start my art practice – I looked around, and couldn’t find many idealist and revolutionary ambitions in art, so I had to create my own – which later resulted in Pussy Riot.