Photos and review by NOTES FROM VIVACE
LOS ANGELES – Nadya Tolokonnikova is out to raise punk from the tomb through the re-interpretation of religion via the lens of secularism. The Honor Fraser Gallery on this night was a dimly lit space where red lights highlighted the art installation of the well-known activist and artist.
During an interview with artist Shepard Fairey, she talked about her theory of modern art and how it “is not all that different then what humanity was doing 10,000 years ago . . . there is visual art and the correspondence would be iconography, maybe it is the statue of the goddess of fertility from many thousands of years ago or more modern Orthodox icons or Catholic statutes.”
She related this to three of her pieces that have “Punks Not Dead” repeatedly written on the tablet looking art. Since art is up to interpretation, maybe those three pieces also represent Christianity’s Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Emphasizing that point were ten other pieces that looked like shields that could be seen as representing the Ten Commandments.
As people walked through the gallery, Tolokonnikova was dressed in a white Orthodox liturgical vestment, pleasantly talking with various people in the crowd.
The night was split into two 45-minute segments. Fairey conducted a 45-minute interview that covered various topics such as Tolokonnikova’s introduction to punk, “I’m one of those girls who goes to Hot Topic and wears the metal band t-shirt and never listened to [the band].”
She discussed the start of Pussy Riot that emerged from visual artists coming up with this idea about making a music video, “but then realized we needed music.” She also mentioned that she just learned how to drive and that she always has a clown nose in her car that she wears when things become difficult.
The interview was not just about humorous tidbits of information about her life. There was also a thought process about how she feels there is a lack of courage within the artist community.
“We’re afraid to lose money that can feed our family, but it makes us not courageous,” she said. “I see a lot of people in the art world who are afraid of doing political art, because they’re afraid to lose sales. Can I blame them for that? They’ve been driven to this very vulnerable place by the economy.”
She also mentioned that she lost her father-in-law Dan Caldwell and that his house burned down during the Palisades fires on the same day.
The concluding 45 minutes was the performance of Punk’s Not Dead by her group Pussy Riot Siberia, which is a 9-act opera. Tolokonnikova was joined on stage by Max Lawton and Riley Bray.
When one thinks of opera, one would naturally imagine music that might be heard at The Metropolitan Opera. Instead, this was industrial building shaking music that blasted from the speakers.
Throughout the show, she stood behind a pulpit, converting the audience. She brought out two shields similar to the 10 that adorned the walls of the gallery, striking and scratching the shields with different objects such as brass knuckles. This signaling the courage needed to bring back the punk mentality?
The highlight of the opera was Act 3’s “Putin’s Ashes” that was released in video form a year ago.
i am sharpening a knife for putin.
i will not forgive you for evil.
After the opera ended, she stood off in a wing of the gallery as people waited patiently to say their hellos. During the interview, she encouraged people to connect with those around them and she applied that concept to herself.