Siberian artist and creator of Pussy Riot, Nadya Tolokonnikova, unveiled her latest work, PUNK’S NOT DEAD at the Honor Fraser Gallery in Los Angeles on January 18th, 2025. The work is part of a residency that will continue into the spring of this year. BUST was lucky enough to chat with Tolokonnikova about her latest project and its timely theme:
The exhibit’s title, PUNK’S NOT DEAD, certainly packs a punch. After viewing the exhibit, it is clear how these three short but formidable words serve as both a declaration, and an ode to the activists and artists who continue to fight back against authoritarianism, oppression, and dehumanization. Tolokinnikova shared her thoughts on the powerful title and the role of punk in activism, stating, “To me, punk is something that challenges norms and your own views of reality—something that’s here to tell you that life could be lived differently.” The Pussy Riot founder then dove deeper on how she views the connection between punk and feminist action, and the dire need for a disruption of the status quo. “When Trump got elected for the first time, I was really expecting a new wave of punk in the arts to arise. And when I say punk, I don’t necessarily mean guitars and Mohawks. I always think about 1968 and how cool it was, like when people really came together in the United States and Paris and things were popping around the world. [During the first Trump administration], I saw a bunch of really great work being done around reproductive justice. I can’t say that nothing was being done, but I didn’t see this abundant amount of solidarity that I would expect. I was expecting more people going to the streets and occupying public spaces, because to me what we are witnessing is outrageous. We are going back in time.”
In PUNK’S NOT DEAD, Tolokonnikova creates the punk intervention she’s been desiring, and fights outrage with outrage, as her unruly compositions delivered in the form of sculpture, visual art, and performance encapsulate life under authoritarianism, as well as create hopeful feminist imaginings of the future.Through sculptural installations made from objects tied to sites of protest and imprisonment, Tolokonnikova transforms “the experience of confinement into a symbolic vocabulary of resistance and renewal.”
It’s no secret that Tolokonnikova has become a leader in arts-based activism, and her work has inspired and continues to inspire countless activists around the globe. When asked about how she views the role of the arts in activism, Tolokonnikova insightfully stated, “I think art makes you think differently. I just had this conversation this morning with my friend as we were talking about a big project we are starting right now. We were outlining our goals, and I told him, ‘I want to make people dream.’ It sounds corny, but I want people to dream big.”
Tolokonnikova went on to discuss the utmost importance of questioning what is considered to be “the norm” and utilizing the arts to imagine utopias, ideas also centered in her most recent Pussy Riot project, Pussy Riot Siberia. The group combines elements of performance, noise music, and visual art, and is centered in an ongoing grappling with ecological destruction. As Tolokonnikova explains, she aims to “produce a tower of sound as black and brutal as Norilsk, the Siberian city where I grew up.” In further describing the inspirations for the project, the artist went on to state, “I remember as a kid I was thinking, I want to do something like ecological tourism to bring people from all around the world to see the city–not because it’s beautiful, but because the world needs that type of warning, that type of ecological tourism to see what’s going to happen to your city if you’re not going to take care of take care of nature.”
As stated, the artistic interventions Tolokonnikova uses as warnings also serve as pathways to build community and create better futures. “Political art is often sad,” the artist expressed, “that’s why I started to focus a little bit more on creating positive visions of the future, utopias. Yeah. I believe that with political art if you’re a good artist, you can predict the future.”
I couldn’t leave our conversation without asking Tolokonnikova about any advice she may have for feminists about facing a second Trump presidency; she delivered, stating “Some simple things; I think good documentation really matters. So if you do something just be sure you work with professional photographers and videographers. The work needs to be able to have a life of its own and travel the world. Second, your action has to be organized. You have to organize like your life depends on it.”
The first part of Tolokonnikova’s PUNK’S NOT DEAD will run at the Honor Fraser Gallery through January 25th, with a closing performance open to the public on that same day. PUNK’S NOT DEAD PART 2 will open at the same gallery this spring, which will spotlight her visual arts practice, debuting a new body of work that further explores her multifaceted approach to resisting systems of oppression and dehumanization.
Top Image: Anton Bondarev
