The Russian protest artists that will inspire you to #resist
A provocative new exhibition in London is here to show the world that Russian protest art goes beyond the well-known colourful feminism of Pussy Riot.
Pussy Riot's explosive "Punk Prayer" performance in an Orthodox church catapulted them into the international headlines in 2012. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich were sentenced to two years in prison for that performance, and the world followed their trial as the trio sat defiantly unfazed behind bars in the courtroom.
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Since then, Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina have become outspoken about their mission to improve prisoners' rights (Samutsevich has kept a lower profile). They're well-represented in "Art Riot: Post-Soviet Actionism" at London's Saatchi Gallery. Alongside the show, theatre group Les Enfants Terribles is presenting an immersive show called Inside Pussy Riot, which attempts to have viewers re-live the horrific ordeal the Pussy Riot members went through in prison.
But the exhibition isn't just about Pussy Riot. For years in the post-Soviet world, artists have been using humour and creativity to exercise their freedom of expression in the face of increasing government censorship and a brutal police state.
Many of the works at the exhibition are crude, either in subject matter or composition, but the spirit of defiance comes through and they make their point. The exhibit comes in the year of the 100th anniversary of Russia's October Revolution, and the gallery says that many of the issues the artists face today are comparable to those arising from the rise of the communist state in 1917.
We've rounded up a few of the artists featured. It might even inspire your own resistance spirit.
Blue Noses Art Group
Image: liza hearon/saatchi gallery
Image: liza hearon/saatchi gallery
The Siberian duo Alexander Shaburov and Vyacheslav Mizin use self-deprecation and humour to get their point across. Their "Mash Show 2" series of pictures puts the faces of world leaders and well-known people (oh hi there, Edward Snowden) in some, um, compromising situations. They love making fun of artists and art itself, but they do get in trouble for poking fun at humourless politicians. Russian authorities have seized their work in the past for being "blasphemous" and clearly don't like the jokes.
The gallery features other Siberian artists too, like Vasily Slonov. His installation of axes in the middle of the gallery called "History of Russia in Axes" celebrates the "Siberian Man" as it skewers everything else.
Image: nikolay nikolov/mashable/saatchi gallery
AES+F, 'Islamic Project'
Image: nikolay nikolov/saatchi gallery
This colourful gallery space showcases images that were created in 1996 as a sort of analysis of Western fears about Islam as the Chechen War began to break out. The textiles show images of "Islamified" world spaces, like the Statue of Liberty with its head covered.
However after the Sept. 11 attacks, the imagery gained new fame, appearing on protesters' placards and popping up in other unlikely spaces outside the world of art.
Oleg Kulik
Image: nikolay nikolov/mashable/saatchi gallery
Oleg Kulik has been well known since the '90s for his "actionism" in performance art. His art usually blends the human and animal (he even lived as a dog in a caged room in New York). He aimed to shake up the commercialisation of art, and to illustrate man's basic animal-like tendencies.
Image: saatchi gallery
In the post-Putin era he takes on video and curatorial projects, and the artworks on display at the exhibition are a good survey of his entire body of work.
Pyotr Pavlensky
Image: saatchi gallery
You've probably heard of this guy before. He's the one who nailed a bit of his, um, manhood to Red Square. He also set alight the doors of the building which houses the successor to the Soviet KGB, in a performance called "Threat." It was all captured by photographers and it's part of this exhibition.
One particularly striking part of his section of the exhibition is a reenacted conversation between himself and an interrogator who, after hours of questioning him, became one of his followers. Listening to the discourse on philosophy and art technique makes us realise how much we take for granted in the UK that we can freely discuss these issues.
And last, but not least, Pussy Riot
Image: nikolay nikolov/mashable/saatchi gallery
One of the gallery spaces is devoted to Pussy Riot, and the many artworks created about them and for them. They've become a symbol of the resistance for many people, and the works place them in this heroic context.
Image: NIKOLAY NIKOLOV/MASHABLE/SAATCHI GALLERY
At the gallery you can watch their iconic performances, and seeing the works about them really reinforces their point that, "Everyone's an artist."
"In 2012 when the balaclavas were removed from three members of Pussy Riot, the concept of anonymous superheroes was changed, primarily by the state. But what followed was even more significant. Three participants were unmasked, but thanks to the political trial, thousands of people put on balaclavas. Pussy Riot stopped being a group and became a movement," the Saatchi Gallery said in its press release.
And what a colourful movement indeed.
"Art Riot: Post-Soviet Actionism" is on at London's Saatchi gallery from 16 November to 31 December.
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