Masks Off in New York: Pussy Riot Members On Tour - WSJ.com
Masks Off in New York: Pussy Riot Members On Tour
May 11, 2014 9:07 p.m. ET
Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina European Pressphoto Agency
The unmasked members of the punk-protest group Pussy Riot are getting a crash-course in American pop culture during their latest U.S. trip.
In recent weeks, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, the public faces of the balaclava-clad political activist posse, have posed for photographs at the Vanity Fair/Bloomberg White House Correspondents Dinner afterparty, talked obsessive tweeting with Dick Costolo, Twitter's TWTR +0.28% chief executive, and they said they met with staff from the Netflix political series "House of Cards" in New York. Most recently, they gave a public talk at Frieze, the art fair on New York's Randall's Island.
The women, who were sentenced to two years in prison after a performance critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin, were released late last year. Last week, they attended to serious business, too, pressing Capitol Hill lawmakers to put 16 Russian officials on a sanctions list for human-rights violations. And they advocated for Cecily McMillan, the Occupy Wall Street protester found guilty of assault and now facing up to seven years in prison.
Over coffee at a trendy New York hotel, Ms. Tolokonnikova, a 24-year-old conceptual artist clad in a black leather jacket and fishnet stockings, reminisced about past political actions in Moscow while taking an occasional sip from the small creamer on the table. Alongside her, 25-year-old Ms. Alyokhina, wearing her signature blue Prada eyeglasses with a pack of Russian cigarettes tucked in her pocket, recalled hiding from police in cafe bathrooms so they could conduct Skype interviews with journalists just before their 2012 arrest.
Through a translator—Ms. Tolokonnikova's husband, Pyotr Verzilov —they spoke with the Journal about serving time, Miley Cyrus and the "House of Cards" meeting. An edited transcript follows.
Can you tell me about life in prison? Were you allowed to listen to music?
Ms. Tolokonnikova: You could listen to music that played on the loudspeakers. This is really, really bad-quality Russian pop music, which is unbearable. The only two things the people in this prison region do is have their pigs and cows and farms and also work as guards in prisons. They are like slave masters, and the slave is the prisoner.
Are any musicians particularly inspiring for you?
Ms. Tolokonnikova: The Riot Grrrl movement, David Bowie, Iggy Pop.
Ms. Alyokhina: Syd Barrett.
What do you think of a pop star like Miley Cyrus? Is she empowering girls, or the opposite?
Ms. Tolokonnikova: The last time I listened to Miley Cyrus was in prison. I don't think that I am the best person to talk about Miley Cyrus. I really don't have thoughts about her, but if she wants to do some human rights, I will appreciate that. But not in terms of her music.
You've come to New York to speak at Frieze. What artists inspire you?
Ms. Alyokhina: Ai Weiwei.
Ms. Tolokonnikova: Banksy, of course. Do you know Rémi Gaillard, a French action artist? He does a sort of live-style protest, a bit anti-establishment, very satirical and very accurate.
You were on Stephen Colbert's show last winter.
Ms. Alyokhina: Stephen Colbert is a persona that doesn't really exist in Russia, and that Russia really needs. This was the first show we did in America, and after that we started to watch him regularly.
Ms. Tolokonnikova: We know he's not sincere, so it's very similar to what we do from time to time. In the '90s, we never had any official portraits in government offices, and then suddenly in 2003, Putin's portrait appeared everywhere. So two days before Medvedev was inaugurated as president in 2008, we decided to do a forceful change from Putin to Medvedev portraits in official offices. We built a human pyramid inside a police station and people got on top of each other and read ironic poems about policemen.
Why are you meeting with people from "House of Cards?"
Ms. Alyokhina: It's important for us to meet people who are doing political cinema in the U.S. because in Russia, it doesn't exist, and we want to know how it happens.
Ms. Tolokonnikova: It's not a question of what do they want, but what we want from them. And we want to learn how to do a political movie. This is our main agenda right now.
Do you want to make a movie?
Ms. Tolokonnikova: We want to do some. We will see.
When you were in L.A., did film producers tell you they wanted to work with you?
Ms. Alyokhina: There were some who asked us about a biopic movie, but we're not interested in this movie about ourselves. We're still alive. We want to do something here and now, in the present.
Ms. Tolokonnikova: For me, it's not a problem. I can't say that I'm against this biopic, but we just have no time right now to collaborate with some people. But if somebody has a great sense of humor and wants to do it, we will be happy about it. Most people see us and our story in very dramatic terms, victims of political regime. We don't want to be victims.
Ms. Alyokhina: We want to be winners.
Write to Ellen Gamerman at ellen.gamerman@wsj.com