Artwork Description
Nadya Tolokonnikova – We Need a New Earth
Dimensions: 31 x 50″
Year: 2019-2023
Medium: velvet, fringe, and embroidery
Edition: 1/3
Based on an art protest event which took place in Yurovo, Russia, in January 2019 in which artists entered the forests and fields, creating stunning and dramatic images featuring a dramatic banner hung in the woods exclaiming “We Need a New Earth,” reflecting on the global environmental catastrophe, and humanity’s seeming unwillingness or inability to do much about it. Tolokonnikova created this “We Need a New Earth” stunning velvet banner in an edition of 3.
Tolokonnikova writes of this work: “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 is 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.
“We Need a New Earth” reflects on the global environmental catastrophe and humanity’s seeming impotence to fix it. “