Russian-based feminist art collective Pussy Riot has put the spotlight on government oppression, political silencing and cultural hypocrisy in their country for more than a decade. But while they’re known for their boisterous, colourful and attention-grabbing political art, what’s less known are the consequences the collective has faced for speaking out.

Velvet Terrorism: Pussy Riot’s Russia, a museum survey making its way to North Vancouver from March 22 to June 2 at The Polygon Gallery, aims to highlight those very consequences, as well as the breadth of work the collective has taken on since their inception in 2011. Created by Pussy Riot member Maria “Masha” Alyokhina in collaboration with artists Ragnar Kjartansson and Ingibjörg Sigurjónsdóttir, the show lays out a history of a group whose early alarm bells have only resonated louder over the years.

“It was becoming clear how prescient [Pussy Riot was], how much foresight this group had and how persistent their resistance was,” says Polygon chief curator Monika Szewcyzk about the rationale for the show’s inception. “I think one of the things that gets missed is that they’ve been at it for a really long time.”

Bright and bold

The collective’s provocative yet measured style is part of what has netted them such attention in recent years. Often donning their signature, brightly-coloured balaclavas, the group is perhaps best known for their Punk Prayer performance, a feminist, anti-Putin song performed in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow.

Other demonstrations include throwing dozens of paper airplanes near a government building to protest Moscow’s attempted ban of messaging app Telegram; another involved mounting rainbow Pride flags on government buildings in protest of Russia’s repressive laws concerning LGBTQ+ rights.

Pussy Riot’s protests are often colourful displays of rebellion on issues that have deep consequences. For Szewczyk, that’s very much intentional and a key piece of the rebelliousness the current exhibit aims to highlight. Even part of the exhibit’s title itself, Velvet Terrorism, references a disapproving description of Punk Prayer’s cultural implications as quoted by Russian bishop and Putin confidante Tikhon Shevkunov.

“Pussy Riot decided to take this exact wording and use it in their own title because they’re very good at taking the weapons of this patriarchy and turning it against itself with humour, with a lot of joy, with a lot of gusto,” says Szewczyk. “[It’s] using humour in the face of a completely humourless regime.”

Keeping up the fight

While there have been various installations highlighting the collective’s work over the years, Velvet Terrorism is the first large-scale retrospective survey of the group. And not only does the exhibit showcase the actions of the group, there’s a deliberate aim to showcase the consequences as well.

“The media that might show you a little bit of the most publicized action, but it doesn’t necessarily always show you the context,” says Szewczyk. “At the beginning nothing happened. Second one, nothing happened. Third one, they get rounded up and arrested. And then it just gets more and more and more repressive.”

For example, Punk Prayer led Alyokhina to be arrested and sent to work in a penal colony. Another arrest in recent years was likely to lead to another penal colony sentence for Alyokhina, so she fled to Iceland. Szewczyk says the consequences and risks the group takes on is on full display at the exhibit.

“There’s the level of sacrifice and commitment that is sometimes underestimated or under-reported. The seriousness of what it means to do this over the course of so many years is not often underscored,” she says.

Overall, Szewczyk thinks the exhibit will offer Vancouver audiences great perspective on a group which continues to champion human rights and democracy.

“I think it’s an incredible example of how art and life merge and how politics can be mounted in nonviolent, joyful, very effective ways,” says Szewczyk. “The project [has] high value as a political force, as an artistic force and also as a kind of human, civic engaged force.”

For more information about the exhibit, visit: www.thepolygon.ca/exhibition/velvet-terrorism-pussy-riots-russia