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A man with a mohawk and mustache wearing lipstick, blush, a feather boa, and bracelets turns toward the viewer with the word “AIDS” blocking out his eyes. The text on the painting reads, “Meet at the fountain?” and “Dangerous games!” The use of a gender-nonconforming, punk male figure as the poster design for an AIDS awareness campaign would have been shockingly straightforward at the time.
Unknown, Meet at the Fountain?, n.d.
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An image of a punk rocker wearing a leather vest, studded leather cuffs, and a crucifix necklace stares straight at the viewer. The title of the work, Welcome, Young Tribe, is taken from a poem from 1835 by Alexander Pushkin entitled, “Again I Visited,” wherein Pushkin muses on life, death, and the connection between humans and nature. Surrounding the man are the phrases, “rock against war,” “rock against drug addicts,” “rock against AIDS,” “rock for democracy,” and “green rock.” The poster welcomes a new generation of liberal, politically active youth to Soviet culture—a new “tribe” of people passionate about the civil rights causes that sprang out of the environmental activism of the 1990s.
Alexander Vaganov, Welcome,Young Tribe…, 1991
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A punk rocker with dyed green hair is wearing leather studded cuffs, a leather choker, and crucifix earrings. Three questions surround the youth: “Who are we? Where are we going? From where?” The only text without a question mark is simply the word “Where” at the bottom right of the poster. The punk and the text represent the search for a new identity after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Unknown, Untitled, n.d.
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