Pussy Riot's new NFT, "Virgin Mary, Please Become a Feminist"
In addition to subject matter like power, the digital works also deal with issues like police brutality, reproductive rights, the imprisonment of political activists, and the government’s attempt to stifle feminist and LGBTQ+ movements. Stylistically, Tolokonnikova uses a childlike hand, which evokes a playful freedom in each
In Pussy Riot’s prison statement, it reads, “...for 1 minute they shouted, jumped, kicked up their legs, imitating dances and striking imaginary opponents with fists.” Since their release, the protest art group has done so much, including founding “Mediazona,” which is now one of the most influential media outlets in modern Russia. They use their dissatisfaction with the system and the trauma they sustained in captivity to fuel their fight against domestic violence and to advocate for prison reform.
Tolokonnikova, like the rest of Pussy Riot, is utterly committed to her cause—equality, uplifting the oppressed, and speaking out for those who cannot. After entering the NFT sphere in March of 2021 with Pussy Riot's series "PANIC ATTACK", they are back with a vengeance. Below, co-founder Nadya tells office about her collection of drawings and how her time in prison still affects her to this day.
Tell us about this piece. What was the inspiration behind it?
I wanted to transform my traumatic experience into something positive as much as possible. I was working with a prison sentence that was given to me and other Pussy Riot members in August of 2012. For all of us, it was a difficult experience. We do not love this document. I’m, for example, still struggling with depression that was triggered by my jail time. When I decided to work with this document, I felt disgusted by it because this is the same exact copy that was given to me when i was sitting in cell #309, and you can see those numbers on one of the pages. The first one. It definitely brought back a lot of terrible memories. My idea was to process my traumatic experience rather than just trying to forget it. So, I’ve decided to work with papers from my prison sentence, and to overcome the negative experience, I decided to subvert it with colorful, childish, happy pictures. Alongside with the bigger piece, I also worked on a bigger collection in the last week. It will consist of 222 pieces because I wanted to make it a little more accessible. When you drop just one, in some situations, a big part of your followers are being priced out of getting this artwork. I don’t like this situation, so I decided to come up with something much cheaper. It will cost 0.1312 eth.
That’s amazing. Are there 222 individual pieces? Each one is completely different?
They are different. Some of them are color variations of the same drawing. On average, it’s around 5 variations of each drawing that I made by hand.
Wow. Why did you decide on the format of an NFT?
I entered the space earlier this year. At the beginning of March of 2021. I heard about NFT’s as a tool for artists in December of last year. I heard it from my friend, but I didn’t really pay attention. More and more people started to talk about it, and one of my close friends made an NFT drop. We talked with him after and he said he’d had a really positive experience. He made this WarNymph drop on Nifty Gateway with Grimes, his sister. His name is Mac Boucher. They collaborated on this piece, and I talked with him a lot about this and talked with some other of my friends. I’ve decided to come to this space to bring more diversity, and I’ve noticed that the space is pretty flexible at this point because it’s fairly new. I had some questions like crypto in general is a pretty male dominated world, but I’m not a big fan of boycotting things. I think we should come in and change it how we want it. I met a lot of amazing people along the way and made an incredible amount of friends. After the initial drop, I took time to learn about the space. I was also working on my album, so I wasn’t actually making drops. And then, just like talking to different people. Like, I interviewed Vitalik Buterin, who is the co-founder of Ethereum. I interviewed a bunch of people and spoke with artists who are prominent in the NFT space, just to learn more. I felt that I learned enough to make another drop. That was my thinking. What I like about NFT’s is that they claim and make a statement that digital art is art, and digital art is not less valuable. I know that it is possible for it to end up in a museum if it’s not a physical piece, but you have much less chances than a person who works with physical material. NFTs definitely raise the perceived value of digital artworks. In a way, Pussy Riot, we were always digital artists because we started as performance artists. The only things we had were photos and videos of our performances, so later when we talked with galleries and museums, they’d be like, Wait, what did you bring, where is your painting? There is no painting.
Above images: Pussy Riot, “Virgin Mary, Please Become a Feminist”, NFT, 2021, courtesy of the artist and SuperRare.
It’s been 9 years since your imprisonment. How has that experience shifted in your memory since then?
It’s been a long time, and I can’t believe it actually threw me off for such a long time. When I got out of jail, I just felt lost. At some point, I felt like maybe my life would never get back to what it used to be when I was just this positive person who likes the work, who likes art, who likes to make performances. When I got out of jail, I was a shadow of that person. I couldn’t recognize myself. For a couple of years, I thought I’d never come back. It took me a while to work on my mental health and come back to reality. It’s gonna sound really crazy, and maybe it is, but I think I found myself just in the last couple of years. And that time before, 2014 ‘til 2018 maybe, I wasn’t sure, exactly, that my mental health gives me the right — I was spending so much time just dealing with my mental health, and I was still producing art, but I felt like I wasn’t doing as much as I could if I hadn’t been damaged by this prison experience. So, now, in 2021, I feel incredibly positive actually. I feel like I almost came back to myself when I was 21, just starting Pussy Riot. I'm obsessed with projects I’m doing, I really believed we could change the world with projects we do. It’s nice to be alive. That’s how my perception of my prison experience has changed.
But, that being said, that’s on the mental health side. But also at the same time, we never stopped working no matter how we felt, crappy or sad. We always worked on activism. When we were released in 2014, we started Mediazona, which is an independent media outlet, and became one of the biggest and most influential media outlets to this day in 2021 in Russia. I’m extremely proud of that, I’m extremely proud of our prison reform initiative that we started when we were released from jail. We did not forget what we went through. My prison warden right now, he’s convicted for building a slave labor system in my jail. So we’ve achieved some victories.
That’s amazing.
I think they made a big mistake putting us in jail, because they expected everyone to forget about us. But, instead they made us stronger. They gave us a bigger platform.
I’m so glad that it did give you a bigger platform, because everything you’ve done inspires so many to act. And Pussy Riot is really so incredible. You’ve reached so many women.
Thank you!
Above images: Pussy Riot, “Virgin Mary, Please Become a Feminist”, NFT, 2021, courtesy of the artist and SuperRare.
What’s coming next for you and for Pussy Riot?
I think it’s going to be important to mention our performance in Dallas. We are coming to Dallas on the 2nd of October to perform at the Women’s March. You know what’s happening in Texas with reproductive rights. I’m definitely not stoked about that. The day after tomorrow, which will be in the past when this is released, I’m going to be performing in Alabama and donating all the proceeds to Planned Parenthood and Yellowhammer Fund, a local reproductive rights organization. We were in Alabama a couple of years ago, when women’s rights here were under attack. In Georgia and Alabama, we came to the city and performed a benefit. I think when it comes to activism, it’s important to be consistent. So, we decided to come back even though the situation particularly in Alabama is not critical. I think it’s really important to support local progressive community, and I really love to go to conservative places to perform, because I feel like that’s the place where it can actually make a difference. So, there’s that.
We’re shooting a music video that’s going to be out, I’d say in a month or so. The song is called “Hate Fuck”. It’s gonna be a fun one.
On the 29th of September, we have 222 pieces dropping on our custom website. Where people can bid. We’re also going to give some preferences to people on our Discord channel to elevate our community. That’s important. That’s what NFTs are about. When you treat them in the right way, I think they’re incredible tools for building communities. You see with a lot of projects like CryptoPunks and Bored Apes, you definitely see when one person just wants to get money from the NFT project or they actually want to give back to the community. I’m excited to carve my own path. I’m hoping that I’m going to be able to give to the community as much as I was given. I’ve been here since March, and I’ve met such an incredible generosity of energy and time and attention. People just really sit with you and explain things you don’t understand. It’s so different from any other circle that I’ve been part of lately. The music industry is really different. It’s all about gatekeeping and making sure you’re not going to share too much of your power with another person. The crypto space is so volatile, flexible, and adaptable. People are exchanging ideas really quickly, and I really love it.
Where can people find your NFT?
We are going to create a website. It’s not live yet. It will go live. It’s going to be pussyriot.love, but I would say the best bet is to go on Pussy Riot’s twitter. When the drop is going to happen, a few hours before, we are going to announce everything and post links.
Check out more of Nadya's drawings below!
