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The painting depicts an ostrich burying its head in the sand. The body of the ostrich is a human brain, still exposed to the world despite the bird’s efforts to hide from imminent danger. This painting demonstrates how people willfully ignore the realities of political life, rather than addressing them head-on.
Alexander Amelin, XX Century, 1977
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A man’s tongue turns into a snake that chokes him. The title of the piece refers to the era of fear and mistrust under Stalin, when a misconstrued phrase or slip of the tongue was enough to be sent to the gulag or executed.
Alexander Lozenko, My Tongue – My Enemy, 1991
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This painting shows a red typewriter with a typed page reading: “Welcome! Support! Vote ‘yes.’” The typewriter is unusual in that instead of keys, identical featureless heads wearing black suits fill the keyboard. The vote referred to the March 17, 1991, referendum on the future of the Soviet Union, when voters were asked: “Do you consider necessary the preservation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as a renewed federation of equal sovereign republics in which the rights and freedom of an individual of any nationality will be fully guaranteed?” The voter turnout for the referendum, the only one in the history of the Soviet Union, equaled around 80 percent, with about 77 percent voting in favor of the preservation. Nonetheless, the Soviet Union fell apart in December 1991. Unknown, Unanimously!, n.d.
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