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©2023 [CONTAINER]
Essay: Tonya Turner Carroll
Additional photographs:
MOLLYAPOP / IG: @molly.a.pop
Design: Brian Bixby
Still from film Putin’s Ashes, 2023Nadya Tolokonnikova’s artwork is her weapon against tyranny. Born in Siberia in 1989 at the very moment the door cracked open for artistic freedom, Tolokonnikova’s intellectual enthusiasm hurled her into conceptual art. She began making radical conceptual and performative works in her own activist zone. As Russian society became increasingly oppressive, she wanted to fight for freedom of expression. At 16 years old, Tolokonnikova left Siberia for Moscow to study philosophy and form the performance art group called Voina (War). After experiencing misogyny within Voina, Tolokonnikova left the group and founded the feminist art collective Pussy Riot.
One of the most conceptually brilliant artists I’ve known, Tolokonnikova purposely titled Pussy Riot using an English name in order to be understood by the largest audience possible. Pussy Riot’s earliest protests would last only seconds before the police came and disrupted them. Determined to shine a light on the Russian government’s increasing human rights violations and hypocrisy, Pussy Riot used every possible means of broadcasting their message with maximum impact in the shortest amount of time. They used microphones, electric guitars, and amplifiers they had cobbled together from car speakers; they wore brightly colored minidresses and balaclavas; they shouted and danced. This artistic style resulted in some critics labeling Pussy Riot punk rock musicians. But in fact, Tolokonnikova asserts that she has always been a conceptual artist, utilizing any medium available to her at the time she creates her work.
“Putin’s weapon is war. My art is my weapon.”
- Nadya Tolokonnikova
Every time Pussy Riot staged an art protest in Russia, police would arrive and break up the protest after about thirty seconds. Russian police have arrested Nadya Tolokonnikova more than 70 times, with her arrest after Pussy Riot’s Punk Prayer resulting in a 21-month prison term in a Russian jail and Siberian penal colony. The stay can’t be euphemized. It was excruciating, causing PTSD and severe depression.
But rather than give up, Tolokonnikova fought back with the truth and art. She created her own opposition news outlet Mediazona, exposing human rights abuses by the Russian government. She made the video art piece Chaika, exposing the corruption inside the Russian justice system. She drew cartoons on her prison sentence papers, making it into an artwork titled Virgin Mary, Please Become a Feminist , and she bottled and dripped her blood on her official freedom papers for her Drink My Blood artwork. “Embracing the truth, we acknowledge that the path to achieving our goals cannot be traversed without the crucible of pain. It is through the fires of adversity that we forge the strength, resilience, and unwavering determination necessary to transcend limitations and reach the pinnacle of our aspirations,” she writes.
In response to Russia’s diabolical invasion of Ukraine, Tolokonnikova created her largest-scale fully immersive artwork yet, Putin’s Ashes . Knowing that Vladimir Putin is superstitious and
Stills from Nadya Tolokonnikova jail performance piece. Mordovia, Penal Colony (PC-14), taken while Nadya served her 2-year-sentenceintimidated by magic and witchcraft, she placed those concepts front and center in her first original art film and score. In a coup de grace, she gathered women who professed deep hatred of Putin, created a ritual in which they burned a large portrait of him, then cast a spell on his ashes and bottled them up. She directed and starred in the filmed performance, then bottled up the resulting ashes, placing them on tiny shelves within her artworks. She made feminine furry frames for these artworks using the sewing skills she was forced to learn in prison to sew police and military uniforms. As part of her Putin’s Ashes immersive installation, Tolokonnikova places Putin’s cremated, denigrated “remains” in a special hell-like tomb all his own, while her film documenting the ritualistic performance shows floor to ceiling, wall to wall, making the balaclava and minidress-donning women look like giant sheroes, delivering civilization from the devil. Michael Carroll studied in Russia during the Soviet era, and he notes that “The Soviets published maps of their country with cities missing and roads not where they actually were. Putin inherited this playbook of deception. Tolokonnikova, like an Aikido master, takes the deception and reorients it to the truth.”
Tolokonnikova got under Putin’s skin so deeply, that he ultimately declared her a “foreign agent” and created a law against “blasphemy” now known as “The Pussy Riot Law.” Tolokonnikova met with U.S. Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, appeared on U.S. news channels like CNN and MSNBC, and continues to tell her truths through every possible medium.
Tolokonnikova has created two new major series of works for her [CONTAINER] exhibition, both of which show major evolution in her artistic career. Her This Art is a hammer that shapes reality series of conceptual text-based works question perceived reality by contrasting sewing machine parts and teddy bears; positive and negative statements. She channels her nightmares of being impaled by broken sewing machine parts in prison, into beautiful, safely-sewn artworks with pink fluffy frames.
With her Knife Play series, she fashions shivs from prison bars into beautiful objects, with handles made from plastic spoons and wooden bits, wrapped with materials on-hand like hair ties, pink ribbon, and clothing parts.
Tolokonnikova’s newest work is her deeply personal, meticulously crafted HAUNTED! multimedia artwork, transforming her PTSD and reliance upon anti-depression medications into an object of
introspective beauty. She collaborated with her friend, Bono, to make a spoken word soundtrack for HAUNTED! , which literally changes rage into beauty as does Tolokonnikova’s work.
Looking back to our earliest knowledge of Tolokonnikova and Pussy Riot’s conceptual artworks, it was clear that she would make an indelible mark on the international art world. At only 33 years old, she has already created artworks with the conceptual and technical maturity of an artist who has already lived a full career. Michael and I are honored to collect her work and support her vision of a world where art can change society. That’s our vision, too, and we are thrilled to share with you the brilliant work Nadya Tolokonnikova has created for our [CONTAINER] exhibition.
“Art holds transformative value by transcending boundaries and amplifying unheard voices. It has the ability to challenge norms, inspire dialogue, and ignite collective action, fostering a world where new possibilities and perspectives can flourish.”
-Nadya Tolokonnikova
Kill the Sexist! was Pussy Riot’s first original performed song from 2011. Nadya Tolokonnikova created this print in 2023 for our exhibition. Her Kill the Sexist! print is a bilingual Russian/English transcription of the original Pussy Riot lyrics. One of these prints was recently acquired by the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University.
“Under the late authoritarian Putin’s regime political art is being pushed, once again—just like in the USSR—from the streets of Russia to the safety of kitchens, forests, and fields. The series of Pussy Riot field actions are inspired by works of The Collective Actions Group, started in 1973— the group led by Andrei Monastyrsky, Lev Rubinstein, Nikita Alekseev, and Georgii Kizevalter— created performances and happenings in the fields outside of Moscow. Artists, in the USSR and now, are looking for places where they can reflect freely without immediately being censored, punished, harassed or murdered.”
- Nadya Tolokonnikova
Eat the Rich reflects on the skyrocketing global inequality and humanity’s seeming inability to deal with it.
Textile-based art forms have often been marginalized as “craft” rather than “fine art.” This marginalization has disproportionately affected women artists working with these mediums. By elevating fabric and sewing into the realm of contemporary art, the artist challenges the hierarchy of artistic mediums, questioning the boundaries of what is considered “high art,” and challenging gender biases within the art world.
Virgin Mary, Please Become A Feminist features Pussy Riot’s hand-drawn artwork across a digitized copy of their actual prison sentencing documents from 2012. Nadya drew childlike drawings onto her court papers in order to alleviate the depression she faced in jail. She placed an image of the Virgin Mary within a vulva-like shape, a form historically associated with the Virgin Mary’s life-giving force as a woman.
This image drew the ire of the Russian Orthodox Church, as Tolokonnikova puts it, “for offending their religious feelings,” and it resulted in Russia placing her on its most wanted criminal list. Tolokonnikova turned this aggression back against Russian tyranny, boldly calling out Vladimir Putin in a TED Talk she gave just weeks later: “From one wanted criminal to another… you have already lost, because the Goddess is on our side.”
Nadya Tolokonnikova, Pussy Riot: “I’ve decided to work with papers from my prison sentence, and to overcome the negative experience, I decided to subvert it with colorful, childish, happy pictures. I wanted to transform my traumatic experience into something positive as much as possible.”
Drink My Blood is a conceptual art piece that reflects on the cruelties of the incarceration system and channels the artist’s experience working in labor camps during her two-year imprisonment there. Working on the old broken sewing equipment, the artist would often injure herself while performing slave labor. A needle would penetrate her fingernail as she was sawing police uniforms. Drink My Blood viscerally reflects Pussy Riot’s ongoing passion for prison reform.
“I spilled some blood on the freedom certificate I was given upon release after spending two years behind bars. I was injured multiple times as the result of being subjected to slave labor while serving my time in a camp [and] forced to sew police uniforms. I wanted to make this freedom certificate to reflect the pain every prisoner goes through”.
- Nadya Tolokonnikova
Drink My Blood is the conceptual and spiritual successor to Virgin Mary, Please Become A Feminist . That artwork utilized her prison sentencing documents in its composition; Drink My Blood closes the chapter with its utilization of her prison release papers.
Tolokonnikova’s Drink my Blood is created under the influence of Joseph Koshut’s classic conceptual artwork One and Three Chairs from 1965.
Drink My Blood consists of 3 parts:
#1
Freedom papers issued to the artist upon her release after serving two years in prison, stained with the blood of the artist. Please note that the physical version of these documents must remain with the artist for legal reasons.
#1 will be kept by the artist due to the legal reasons.*
* Once convicted, according to the Russian law Nadya needs to present her freedom certificate when traveling outside of Russia to confirm that the artist did properly serve her jail time.
#2
Blood of the artist , bottled, shipped to an address of the collector(s) choice by the artist. Additionally, a digital representation of the artist’s blood vial will be issued as an NFT to every individual bidder on the auction.
#3
Digitized freedom certificate stained with the blood of the artist , minted on Ethereum blockchain.
#3 will be transferred to the collector(s)’ wallet.
Pussy Riot’s Putin’s Ashes was initiated in August 2022 when Nadya Tolokonnikova burned a 10 x 10-foot portrait of the Russian president, performed rituals, and cast spells to chase Putin away. Twelve women participated in the performance. In order to join, women were required to experience acute hatred and resentment toward the Russian president. Most of the participants were either Ukrainian, Belarussian, or Russian. Nadya Tolokonnikova bottled the ashes of the burnt portrait and incorporated them into her art objects that are being presented alongside her short art film Putin’s Ashes , directed, edited, and scored by Tolokonnikova and co-produced by John Caldwell.
“While working with artifacts, bottling ashes, and manufacturing the faux furry frames for the bottles, I used skills that I learned in the sweatshops of my penal colony. I was forced to sew police and army uniforms in a Russian jail. I turned what I learned in my labor camp against those who locked me up. Putin is a danger to the whole world, and he has to be stopped immediately,” said Tolokonnikova.
“Just like in Putin’s Ashes , a squadron of balaclava-clad women doing a ritual to bring about Putin’s death, they bear a flag with the Russian word for cunt and a button that “neutralizes Vladimir Putin,” they stand in formation before a burning effigy of Putin’s face, Nadya, wearing a white balaclava, is the leader, drone shots above them in the beautiful desert night, the entire squadron stabs the ground, the women spit into the sand in Putin’s general direction, then Nadya collects the ashes from the effigy.
Just as is the case with everything else that passes through her art, the Putin’s Ashes project has turned Vladimir Putin into Nadya’s bitch.”
- Max Lawton
Series of 100 works, mixed media, 20 x 16” each, 2023
From the two years she spent in prison, Tolokonnikova learned the desperation prisoners can feel due to the deprivation of necessities and oppression. Shivs are objects prisoners craft from rudimentary materials they can find on hand, for use as everyday tools or as weapons. Tolokonnikova used metal from jails to craft these knives, feminizing and humanizing them with elements such as ribbon, plastic flatware, and toothbrushes or combs. The dangerous potential of these sharp metal objects stands in stark contrast to the “feminine” color and material associations of their brocade mounts and Tolokonnikova’s signature furry frames, created using sewing skills she learned in prison as she was forced to sew Russian military uniforms.
Knife
Knife
Clockwise from top left to right: Knife Play (Black 29), 2023, mixed media, 24 x 18”
Knife Play (Black 14), 2023, mixed media, 24 x 18”
Knife Play (Black 23), 2023, mixed media, 24 x 18”
Knife Play (Black 10), 2023, mixed media, 24 x 18”
The series This Art is a Hammer That Shapes Reality evokes the Utopian ideals of the Russian avant-garde, fusing bold visual elements with thought-provoking narratives to challenge societal norms and envision a more equitable and harmonious future. Needles and sewing machine parts take center stage as Tolokonnikova harnesses the skills she learned while enduring forced labor during the 2 years she served as a political prisoner in Russian labor camps.
“I incorporate needles and sewing machine parts—they represent my experiences of forced labor in the camp. During that time, I would have dreams of receiving new sets of needles and machine parts, only to wake up to the harsh reality of continuing to sew on old, unsafe equipment. I endured injuries and excruciating pain while sewing, including a traumatic incident where a needle penetrated my finger and caused profuse bleeding, yet I was compelled to persist without proper medical care. The use of red splashes in my artwork represents the blood that stained my work table at the factory. I incorporate teddy bears into my work, penetrating them with needles and presenting them as worn and dirty. The teddy bears encapsulate the innocence and vulnerability I once possessed, now marred and broken by the oppressive forces at play.”
- Nadya Tolokonnikova
“Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.”
- Bertolt Brecht
“Through the alchemy of art, I transform pain and PTSD into resilience and hope. With each piece, I weave my experiences into a tapestry of healing. Art becomes the beacon that guides us out of the darkness, reminding us that even amidst the deepest wounds, there is the potential for transformation, strength, and a renewed sense of purpose.”
- Nadya Tolokonnikova
“Teddy bears evoke humor and child-like naivete and hope—much needed in order to survive under oppression. Humor was another of the soul’s weapons in the fight for self-preservation. It is well known that humor can afford an aloofness and an ability to rise above any situation, even if only for a few seconds
(Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning ).”
- Nadya Tolokonnikova
Clockwise from top left to right: This art is good enough for a museum, 2023, mixed media, 20 x 16”
This art is not good enough for a museum, 2023, mixed media, 20 x 16”
This art sends Putin to jail for life, 2023, mixed media, 20 x 16”
This art puts you on Russia’s most wanted list, 2023, mixed media, 20 x 16”
Clockwise from top left to right: This art was censored, 2023, 20 x 16”
This art was not made by a successful white male, 2023, 20 x 16”
This art is created by a foreign agent, 2023, mixed media, 20 x 16”
This art is created by a criminal, 2023, mixed media, 20 x 16”
Nadya Tolokonnikova was diagnosed with PTSD and major depressive disorder in 2014 after she served two years in labor camps as a political prisoner. She remains addicted to SSRI antidepressants ever since, struggling from a wide range of side effects like depersonalization, self-harm, and alienation.
HAUNTED! depicts the crippling effects of mental illnesses and pharmaceuticals on everyday life, and the pharmaceutical industry’s failure to solve the problem. Can pills make us feel better about a broken world?
These ten Riot Barrels were made for the Nadya Tolokonnikova/Pussy Riot show at CONTAINER in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They symbolize warmth, survival, and the global manner in which people gather around a fire for community. They are made from cast off oil drums, firewood, and flickering LED lights that bely the lack of electricity which would normally necessitate their use. They are bold and gentle, thought-provoking yet not didactic, and brilliant statements on the nature of power and human resilience.
Replica of the artist’s solitary confinement cell, where he was placed while on hunger strike protesting against harsh labor and living conditions, demanding to improve them for every prisoner in the artists’ penal colony. In a result of the hunger strike, the prison warden was removed and put through a criminal investigation for organizing a slave labor system. The artist reclaims her traumatic experience, faces it, and turns it into art. Art holds soft power to help to win an unequal David-Goliath battle of an individual over repressive institutions.
Prison Cell installation has a performance aspect to it: at the opening reception the artist was remaining in her jail cell, carving words of hope on the table, words related to her prison experience: БУНТ (riot), ПРОТЕСТ (protest), ПИР (feast - a code word the artist used for her hunger strike while imprisoned), СИБИРЬ (Siberia), PUSSY RIOT, СЕВЕР (North), ПРОШМАНДОВКА (whore), ПИЗДА (cunt), ХУЙ (dick).
Born Norilsk, Siberia
Education
2019 RISD Honorary Doctorate
2006-2012 Moscow University, Department of Philosophy
Selected Solo Gallery Experiences
2023 Premiere of Immersive Putin’s Ashes exhibition, with prison correspondence and shivs, as well as her first short film and musical score, CONTAINER Turner Carroll, Santa Fe
Putin’s Ashes, Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, Los Angeles
2017 Inside Pussy Riot, Saatchi Gallery, London
2012 Pussy Riot Punk Prayer, on permanent display, Palais de Tokyo
Selected Group Exhibitions and Collaborations
2023 Riot: Girls to the Front, a group exhibition of works that being auctioned at Sotheby’s to benefit Planned Parenthood, Sotheby’s gallery : New York, US
Shepard Fairey Gallery Group Exhibition, Subliminal Projects : Los Angeles, US
2022–2023 Empowerment, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany Kunstmuseum
2022 Sensitive Content, curated by Helen Beard, Alayo Akinkugbe and Maria Elena Buszek, Unit Gallery, London Unit London
2020 Herstory: All that Women Are : Viridian Artists Inc, New York, NY
2017 Inside Pussy Riot, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK Artnet
Art Riot: Post Soviet Actionism : Saatchi Gallery, London, UK Saatchi
2016 Recycling Religion : Whitebox Gallery, New York Whitebox
Bose Clowns: Reloaded : Kunstpalais Erlangen, Germany Link
2015 Dismaland, curated by Banksy : Weston-Super-Mare, UK Artnet
2014–2015 Zero Tolerance : MoMA, P.S.1, New York, NY Moma
2014 Take Liberty! : The Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo, Norway Link
Selected Public Works
2022 MATRIARCHY NOW at the Texas State Capitol : Austin, TX, US Frieze
2021 PATRIARCHY R.I.P, billboard exhibition : US, nationwide The Art Newspaper
2018 POLICEMEN ENTERS THE GAME, The World Cup : Moscow, Russia Frieze
2014 PUTIN WILL TEACH YOU HOW TO LOVE : Sochi, Russia NYmag Series of guerrilla art actions in Sochi, Russia, during the Sochi Olympics: Pussy Riot sang about political prisoners, crackdowns on independent journalism, and civil liberties.
2013 LIKE IN A RED PRISON : Russia, nationwide Series of guerrilla art actions at oil and gas extraction facilities. While Tolokon nikova was in jail, she co-wrote songs with Pussy Riot members who remained free and they performed those songs live, illegally.
2012 VIRGIN MARY, GET RID OF PUTIN : Moscow, Russia Guardian Guerrilla art action at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, Moscow, protesting against the unity of the church and the government and against attacks on women and LGBTQ+ rights.
PUTIN HAS PISSED HIMSELF : Moscow, Russia TheArtReview
2012 Guerrilla art action at the Lobnoye Mesto on the Red Square, Moscow, within the context of ongoing mass protests against Putin across Russia.
2011 DEATH TO PRISON, FREEDOM TO PROTEST : Moscow, Russia PussyRiotArchive
Guerrilla art action on the rooftop of Moscow detention center #1 in which Pussy Riot called for a peaceful occupation of Russian city squares and for the release of political prisoners.
KROPOTKIN-VODKA : Moscow, Russia PussyRiotArchive
Series of guerrilla art actions in iconic locations emblematic of Moscow’s lavish, glamorous, and apolitical lifestyle.
FREE THE COBBLESTONE: Moscow, Russia PussyRiotArchive
Series of guerrilla art actions in Moscow public transport.
KISS THE POLICE : Moscow, Russia Voina PussyRiotArchive
2010 THE CONCERT IN A COURT : Moscow, Russia
Guerilla concert during a court hearing, done to protest against the censorship of art
2008 STORM OF THE WHITE HOUSE : Moscow, Russia Artnet
Selected Collaborative Works
2022 What If Women Ruled the World? with Judy Chicago : US ICAMiami
Speech Itself - Pen America with Jenny Holzer: New York, US PenAmerica
Awards and Honors
2022 Outstanding Award by OutRight Action International for her effort raising $7M in donation for Ukraine with the NFT Project Ukraine DAO, given remotely at the Celebration of Courage Gala
2020 Collaborative serigraph edition with poster artist Zoltron is in the permanent collection of LACMA and The Victoria Albert Museum
2019 Best Art of the 21st Century: The Punk Prayer political art piece from 2012 was ranked in the top 5 of the Best Art of the 21st Century by The Guardian Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degree by Rhode Island School of Design, for “powerful voice in the fight against tyranny”
2015 Arts and Humanity Award, WhiteBox/Richard Massey Foundation
2014 Prudential Eye Awards, Singapore, Digital/Video category (nominated)
2012
Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought
1LIVE Krone, German music prize honoring courage
Martin Luther “Fearless Word” Prize (nominated)
LennonOno Grant for Peace (Pussy Riot)
Sakharov Prize (nominated)
Time magazine Women of the Year
Books by Nadya Tolokonnikova
2018 Read & Riot: A Pussy Riot Guide to Actionism
2014 Comradely Greetings: The Prison Letters of Nadya and Slavoj
Selected Press
“Anti-Putin Pussy Riot Singer and Activist Talks Abortion, Ukraine and NFTs,” Newsweek, Maura Currie, September 19, 2022
“Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova on Bringing Crypto to the Abortion Fight and ‘Deranged’ Putin,” The Daily Beast, Marlow Stern, July 4, 2022
“A Party Crawl With Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova,”
The New York Times, Valeriya Safronova, June 30, 2022
“Interview: Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova On Bringing Activism Into The Crypto Age With Nfts And UnicornDAO,”
Untitled, Indira Cesarine, May 20, 2022
“Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova: ‘You cannot play nice with Putin. He is insane. He might open fire on his own people’,”
The Guardian, Zoe Williams, March 8, 2022
“Exclusive: How Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova Is Using Crypto to Fight for Equality,” Time, Raisa Bruner, March 3, 2022
“Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova: ‘Fuck Putin. I Hope He Dies Soon’,”
Rolling Stone, Kory Grow, February 26, 2022
“Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova Is Shaping The Future Of Russia,”
V Magazine, Kevin Ponce, March 14, 2021
“I’m an Activist in Russia. I Can’t Believe What My Life Has Become. The New York Times, Nadya Tolokonnikova, August 26, 2020,”
“Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova reflects on the roots of her rebellion,”
The Washington Post, KK Otsen, March 19, 2019
“What Surprised Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova About U.S. Prisons,” The Hollywood Reporter, Scott Johnson, February 6, 2019
“Times Talks: Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova and Marina Abramonic,”
The New York Times, May 14, 2018
““Russia Is Not Putin”: Talking With Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova,” Paper, Natalie Mantini, November 20, 2017
“Pussy Riot on Art, Activism, and Their Name’s Hilarious Russian Translation,” Artnet News, Cait Munro, November 3, 2014
“Power 100: Pussy Riot,” ArtReview, 2012
Notable Collections
Ryan Zurrer
Lauren Taschen
Beth Rudin DeWoody
Tonya Turner Carroll and Michael Carroll
Zimmerli Art Museum