Pussy Riot stands for gender fluidity, inclusivity, matriarchy, love, laughter, decentralization, anarchy, and anti-authoritarianism.
Today, hundreds of people identify as a part of the Pussy Riot community. Conceptual artist and activist Nadya Tolokonnika, founding member of Pussy Riot, was sentenced in 2012 to 2 years imprisonment following an anti-Putin performance. She went through a hunger strike protesting savage prison conditions and ended up being sent to a Siberian penal colony. Tolokonnika managed to maintain her artistic activity and put together her prison punk band to tour around Siberian labor camps. She recently published a book, “Read and riot: Pussy Riot’s guide to activism.”
As a result of these activities, the group has decided to take their authoritative protests one step further, announcing news of upcoming ventures into the art world, NFT launches, and musical collaborations with one of The Untitled Magazine‘s cover stars Dorian Electra. The group released a new single, “Toxic,” with Electra and featured in the song, “My Agenda,” which has amassed almost 2 million streams on Spotify.
OPEN CALL: SAVEARTSPACE X PUSSY RIOT #PUSSYVERSE
Deadline for submissions: January 10, 2022
Pussy Riot will be curating a new public art exhibition, #PUSSYVERSE, which is hosting an Open Call for female and LGBTQ+ artists in collaboration with SaveArtSpace. The group asks that the artwork highlights topics of female and LGBTQ+ empowerment, smashing the patriarchy, and eliminating gender inequality in the distribution of capital. There is a $10 donation per image submission to participate; each donation is tax-deductible and helps produce the public art. Each artist is encouraged to submit up to 10 images.
The group’s founding member Nadya Tolokonnikova will select 10 artworks, which will be exhibited on billboard ad space in California, New York, Alabama, Texas, Tennessee, Arizona, Louisiana, Georgia, Idaho, Utah, Mississippi. The selected artists and their artworks will be offered to participate in an NFT auction, curated and promoted by #PUSSYVERSE, SaveArtSpace, Quantum. Art, Justin Aversano, and Pussy Riot.
Artists can submit their artwork here.
PUSSY RIOT’S DRINK MY BLOOD ARTWORK TO LAUNCH ON 12.2 VIA FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS
Pussy Riot recently dropped Drink My Blood, new artwork that was auctioned on December 2nd, 2021. Pussy Riot’s, Nadya Tolokonnikova’s very personal artwork is dropping with Friends With Benefits (FWB) at Miami Art Basel, crafted using the freedom papers she received upon her release from prison in 2013. The piece is a follow-up to her previous Virgin Mary Please Become A Feminist, which was created using her prison sentencing documents and sold for 40 ETH on SuperRare in September. Pussy Riot is the first female artist to mint on the new FWB Gallery platform.
Drink My Blood is based on actual events. When Pussy Riot served their time, Nadya Tolokonnikova was forced to sew police uniforms, and she’d frequently injure herself due to the prison not maintaining safe labor conditions.
The collection consists of 3 pieces:
#1 Freedom certificate issued to the artist upon her release after 2 years in prison, stained with the blood of the artist.
#2 Blood of the artist, bottled.
#3 Digitized freedom certificate stained with the artist’s blood and set to the unreleased Pussy Riot song “Anthem,” minted on Ethereum blockchain.
Nadya Tolokonnikova states: “I spilled some blood on the freedom certificate I was given upon release on xmas eve of 2013, after spending 2 years behind bars. I was injured multiple times as the result of being conditioned to slave labor while serving my time in a camp – I was forced to sew police uniforms. I wanted to make this freedom certificate to reflect the pain every prisoner goes through. The collector quite literally will be sent a physical bottle of my blood, and an NFT.”
