Artwork Description
Nadya Tolokonnikova – Putin’s Ashes-30g
Dimensions: 40 x 30″
Year: 2023
Medium: mixed media
Nadya Tolokonnikova is one of the most influential artists of our century. She founded the international art collective Pussy Riot, and was imprisoned in Siberia for her activist art targeting Russian tyrant Putin. Her Putin’s Ashes series, in which she and other Pussy Riot members burned a 10 x 10′ image of Putin, filmed the act, bottled the ashes, and present them in artworks, is her most self-reflexive and conceptually brilliant immersive series.
Known internationally as the founder of the Russian feminist activist group Pussy Riot. She has instigated some of the most significant actions of social justice against Russian tyranny, including Pussy Riot’s Punk Prayer in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow. Tolokonnikova was subsequently imprisoned in Siberia, where she was forced to sew Russian army uniforms. In true Tolokonnikova form, she used the sewing skills the regime forced her to learn against them, by creating her own anti-Putin artworks (such as this one) using these same skills. The resulting Putin’s Ashes artworks put Tolokonnikova on the international art world map as her first collectible museum and gallery artworks. They also earned her a Russian arrest warrant and a spot on Putin’s most wanted list. The art historical and political significance of these works is profound.