On Show: Pussy Riot’s Russia at the Polygon Gallery
Velvet Terrorism.
From the action ‘Putin peed his pants,’ 2012. Photo by Denis Sinyakov
Velvet Terrorism: Pussy Riot’s Russia, an exhibition of a decade’s worth of activism and expression by the Russian art collective Pussy Riot, is on display at North Vancouver’s Polygon Gallery until June 2.
The exhibition documents the group’s actions against the backdrop of increasing restrictions imposed by the Russian authorities. Styled in bright neon colours and heavily utilizing masking tape and handwritten descriptions, the work is presented in a style that mirrors the clandestine methods the group had to use to avoid prosecution.
Included is the video and description of Pussy Riot’s performance Punk Prayer in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, a protest against the Russian churches’ increasing complicity in Vladimir Putin’s regime. The performance resulted in the arrest of three of the group’s members, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich, with Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina sentenced to two years in labour colonies.
The exhibition lays out chronologically not only the collective’s increasingly vital protests but also the simultaneous efforts by the Russian authorities to stop them. One of the last walls features details of Aloykhina’s flight from Russia dressed as a food delivery driver, first to Lithuania and then Iceland, where Velvet Terrorism was first shown.
“This exhibition highlights Pussy Riot’s courageous spirit and tenacious advocacy of human rights, while offering a graphic narrative about Russia’s recent history,” says Reid Shier, director of The Polygon Gallery. With the continuing war in Ukraine and the recent death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the group’s work is as vital now as it ever was.
