Digital Voices, Other Rooms: Pussy Riot’s Recalcitrant (In)Corporeality

Abstract

The international attention surrounding Pussy Riot’s performance of their “Pank-moleben” (“Punk prayer”) has perhaps understandably focused largely on the manifestly political aspects of this act, due in part to both the specific sociocultural-historical context, and the very lyrics of the song itself—including the invocation of the term “feminist” (which is arguably inherently political in nature). In this article, however, I approach the subversive nature of Pussy Riot’s performance not via recourse to lyrical content (or political ideology), but by attention to the human voice and the often overlooked fact that the actual act for which the women were arrested, tried, and convicted was largely devoid of (musical) sound. With attention to several of Pussy Riot’s musical actions, and situating the group in relation to both earlier Russian performance practices, as well as performance and sound arts in general, I argue that their complex protest performances and artifacts function as de facto interrogations of the very status of the female body. The group’s performative highlighting of the liminality of corporeality, related to several “post-”s (-human, -feminist, -modern) may, depending upon geo-socio-cultural and ideological location, be experienced either as offering exhilarating new possibilities or threatening a vertiginous and terrifying sense of dislocation. In relation to a central “post-,” however—specifically, the post-Soviet—I suggest that this fundamental destabilization of supposedly foundational (biological) “realities” accounts for some of the overwhelmingly negative reactions that the group’s performances have engendered among Russian citizens.

Acknowledgment

This work was supported in part by a grant from the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS).

Notes

1. The closing statements of all three defendants—Alekhina, Samutsevich, and Tolokonnikova—can be read, in English translation, at https://nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/pussy-riot-closing-statements/; the original Russian—both text and audio—can be found at http://www.echo.msk.ru/blog/echomsk/917223-echo/ (both accessed 14 Mar. 2015).

2. Putin’s suggestion that the group staged a xenophobic action targeting Jews, gays, and migrant workers in a Moscow supermarket completely misrepresented the purpose of the protest, which was an indictment (not instance) of xenophobia in contemporary Russian society.

3. The transcript of the interview can be found at http://rt.com/news/vladimir-putin-exclusive-interview-481/ (accessed 14 Mar. 2015); the interview itself can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB45clPRNoc (with English translation; accessed 14 Mar. 2015) or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF0dx1R2PeQ (in the original Russian; accessed 14 Mar. 2015).

4. Referencing Voina’s “orgy” in the historical museum, the President offered “you know, some fans of group sex say it’s better than one-on-one because, like in any team, you don’t need to hit the ball all the time.”

5. Gololobov and Steinholt do note, however, that the group does use punk stances, and that some from the punk scene have broken down the barriers between the musical and artistic communities, forging working relationships with artists.

6. The definition was offered by Tolokonnikova in her closing statements to the court. Tolokonnikova was a participant in several such “artistic” political actions while a member of Voina.

7. As only one example, the paintings of Il’ia Repin—including some of the most widely known works such as Barge Haulers on the Volga, The Propagandist, and Religious Procession in Kursk Province, the last of which arguably critiques the power of both church and state via images of vanity, pride, and cruelty—are often visualizations of social critique and commentary. The extent to which political and ideological concerns animated Russian literary production—from Pushkin to Gogol to Maiakovskii to Pelevin—is beyond the scope of this study, and hardly needs rehearsing here.

8. Street performances in the early Soviet period could include thousands of citizens, often functioning as a sort of “Greek chorus,” but such spectacles were not repeated after 1920.

9. For more on the balagany, see Swift (20–38).

10. As early as 1919, proclamations against abstraction appeared, invoking a bifurcation between “elite” artists, on the one hand, and the proletariat, on the other. As noted in a resolution dated 10 April 1919 by the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet, “Under no circumstances may the arrangement for the May Day festivities be given into the hands of the Futurists from the ‘Fine Arts’ department. A special commission has been entrusted with the job of attracting trade unions and other workers’ organizations to the task” (qtd in Tolstoy, Bibikova, and Cooke 23).

11. The positing of a synthesis of bottom-up/top-down notwithstanding, a clear paternalism was evident in leaders’ discourse from the early days of the Soviet Union, in relation to public festivities. In 1920, for example, betraying a more than tacit belief that the populace needed some sort of civilizing impulse, as well as the importance of a top-down hierarchy, Lunacharskii noted that “until social life teaches the masses some kind of instinctive compliance with a higher order and rhythm, one cannot expect the throng to be able by itself to create anything but a lively noise and the colorful coming and going of festively dressed people. [Celebrations] should be organized just as anything else in the world that has a tendency to produce a profound aesthetic impression” (qtd in Tolstoy, Bibikova, and Cooke 124).

12. The video, as well as still images from the various performances, can be seen at http://pussy-riot.livejournal.com/5164.html (accessed 14 Mar. 2015).

13. While early politically motivated performances indeed made use of foreign elements, such non-indigenous elements were later questioned. As a member of the Section of Mass Performances and Spectacles of the Theatrical Department of the Commissariat for Education, Nakompros, in the 5–8 February edition of Vestnik teatra (Theatre Courier) opined, in conjunction with the planning of May Day festivities in Moscow, “it would be wrong to restore Greek myths during the celebration of 1 May. They are alien to the proletarian masses and in no way reflect the latter’s own ideology or feelings. The first proletarian festival should protect the purity of its idea from any deposits of alien cults, from Biblical mythos or Christian rites, even from the civic festivities of the French Revolution” (qtd in Tolstoy, Bibkova, and Cooke 125).

14. This rubric might include any number of types of installations, representations, or performances of which sound is a main component. Indeed, LaBelle notes that the very act of defining sound art is fraught with complications. Sexton mirrors this sentiment, but turns to LaBelle’s “general notion of sound art as a conceptual practice in which music/sound ‘is both the thing and a reflection on the thing’ (LaBelle 4)” (Sexton 86). Although Pussy Riot may not themselves “reflect” (at least in written form) on “the thing,” LaBelle does not seem to suggest that such a “reflection” need be located in the arena of authorial intent; rather, such interrogation may be a de facto correlate of the performance itself and/or located at the point of reception.

15. Indeed, although they did not perform in a musical capacity, Alekhina’s and Tolokonnikova’s participation in an Amnesty International concert in Brooklyn, New York, in February 2014 was repudiated by other Pussy Riot members due to the fact that the event had sold tickets—something anathema to the group’s politics (Pussy Riot, Tak uslysh’te). Both women questioned the authorship of the “open letter” that appeared on the group’s official blog, denying (in response to assertions made in the blog posting) that they had left the group (Michaels 2014).

16. As Sexton notes, while it is difficult to differentiate between “sound art” and “music” “in any total manner,” we may draw attention to “the ways in which the works are defined and presented within a nexus of…creators, promoters, critics and audiences” (85).

17. The video, as well as still photos from the performance, can be seen at http://pussy-riot.livejournal.com/5763.html (accessed 14 Mar. 2015).

18. For example, Eisenstein’s Bronenosets Potemkin (Battleship Potemkin) (1925), Vertov’s Tri pesni o Lenine (Three Songs about Lenin) (1934), and even Aleksandrov’s supposedly “light” musical, Tsirk (The Circus) (1936), which engages social issues related to race and racism.

19. According to Kickasola, Eisenstein considered this “asynchronous” approach to be a sort of “moral duty in order to preserve the artistic integrity of the visual image and not dilute its power” (64). It is tempting to draw comparisons here with Malevich’s Suprematist works insofar as they may be viewed as attempts to break free from the shackles of visual representation and mimesis (see Benjamin ch. 6).

20. Tolokonnikova has frequently referenced western (often second-wave) feminist theorists, works, and histories, including in the context of a discussion of Kathleen Hanna and the Riot Grrrl movement (Tolokonnikova “Letter”; “Pank-pevitsa”).

21. Members of the group were physically attacked both in Sochi (at the site of the Olympic games) (Walker) and in Nizhnyi Novgorod (see Amnesty International).

22. Forrester notes just this nomenclatural practice in the work of Marina Tsvetaeva, and furthermore highlights the association of the physical space of the Orthodox Church with the female body. On this linkage, see also Hubbs (102).

23. Although Bag notes that the early punk movement in Los Angeles was marked by a high level of diversity (“Early punks were rich, poor, gay, straight, male and female, with a good sampling of L.A.’s ethnic diversity.…The earliest participants and movers behind the scene were united only in the sense of having been identified as ‘outcasts,’ either by society or by themselves” [236]), Downes finds that punk subcultures inevitably supported hegemonic masculinity, where women could fit in only by repudiating or embracing the (stereotypically) feminine, thus functioning as either “one of the boys” or an object of male desire. In her estimation “despite women’s contributions and legacy in punk culture…punk women’s resistance was constrained by hegemonic gender relations that leaked into punk subcultures” (208). For an annotated list of women’s contributions to (feminist) punk music, see also Nguyen. On the gendered implications of musical style in Russian popular music, see also Amico (“Visible Difference”).

24. In article 9 of his 1909 manifesto, Marinetti proclaims: “We will glorify war—the world’s only hygiene…and scorn for women,” finding women a “symbol of the earth that we ought to abandon” (qtd in Howarth 149).

25. The influence of Riot Grrrl, musically, politically, and ideologically, has been noted by group members themselves; in a recent article, Tolokonnikova (”Pank-pevitsa”) relates the fact that “‘What’s Yr Take on Cassavetes’ of Hanna’s project following Bikini Kill, Le Tigre, spun in my head the whole time I was in prison. And it was the first composition that I listened to upon my release.” The connection of the name Pussy Riot to that of Riot Grrrl seems obvious; it may also be that other Riot Grrrl song and band names have been influential—for example, the group Pussycat Trash, or the song “Shaved Pussy Poetry” by Huggy Bear. It is also possible that the group is constructing a (genitally) female counterpart to the seminal punk band the Sex Pistols whose appellation is arguably suggestive of the male sexual organ.

26. McMichael highlights the importance of the use of (social) media in Pussy Riot’s work, including platforms such as LiveNation, VKontakte, and YouTube. In this regard, Pussy Riot’s DIY ethos resembles the actions and strategies of USA and UK-based Riot Grrrl communities, often defined in part by their appropriation of the “means of production” of media products. As Kearney notes, “The creation and maintenance of Riot Grrrl’s community is due in large part to the circulation of girls’ self-produced media products, which disseminate the ‘Revolution Girl Style Now!’ message and signal a rebellion against not only girls’ subordinated social position, but also their complicated economic position as one of the primary target groups for the fashion, beauty, and culture industries....[R]iot grrrls attempt to oppose and exist outside the institutions that support commercial youth culture by creating the music, magazines, and other creative products they consume” (68).

27. See, for example, inter alia, Jarman-Ivens; Leibetseder; Peraino; Taylor.

28. A significant number of works spanning the past two decades attests to the durability of gendered constraints within the realm of the musical, in numerous geocultural locations. See, for example, inter alia, Bannister; Bayton; Doubleday; Harrison, Welch, and Adler; Leonard.

29. Note, for example, the all-female DJ association Provansal’ and the Nascency album released in 2012 by St. Petersburg Subwise Records, featuring works by female electronica composers/performers. Additionally, there are numerous male performers whose self-presentation—on both visual and auditory levels—implicitly questions a strict gender duality and hierarchy (see Amico, Roll Over).

30. On the feminization of the popular, see, for example, Huyssen. For a critique of this devaluation, and an analysis of the ways in which the feminized popular may indeed hold the potential for transformative potential, see James.

31. This value-laden hierarchy is related not only to the gendered make-up of the genres’ typical audiences—popsa/female, rok/male—but also their subject matters (love and romance versus politics and social commentary) and geocultural connotations. In this last regard, popsa may be considered a symptom of an incursion of western cultural values (based on monetary rather than artistic concerns), while (Russkii) rok is seen as indigenous (and not, incidentally, having lyrics of higher literary value). As Borenstein argues, the penetration of Russian space by western culture is often figured in biological, gendered terms.

32. The beginning of the title, “ZEN,” was in Latin script, the rest of the title in Cyrillic (ZEN: Женщина как субъект и объект в искусстве). This “prefix”—a literal “transliteration” of which would be zhen—could reference zhenskaia (female), zhenstvennaia (feminine), or zhenshchina (woman).

33. Kamenetskaia here appears to be referencing, in relation to the “z,” several gender-related words (see note 31). The “f” is presumably a reference to the word “feminism.”

34. Even semen has been the object of an attempt at “de-materialization”—and thus its re-construction as a (non)substance that transcends corporeality—from the ancient Greeks onward (see Sissa).

35. The alignment of the female with the corporeal—in a distinctly negative manner—may also be found in contemporary Russian cinema; here, lesbian women are often portrayed, according to Baer, as exhibiting a voracious sexuality/sensuality (in contrast to a physicality defined in reference to maternity). It is also interesting, as Baer notes, that it is the male homosexual who is often portrayed as spiritually elevated and the female lesbian earthly/corporeally bound, thus again indicating the importance of the physical body (male versus female) in such constructions; that is, although the homosexual male is figured as “feminine,” it is perhaps his physical body (with a specific set of genitals) that contributes to his placement on the “spiritual” side of the ledger.

36. The authors also note that Kollontai, in her notebook fragments, defines women as “citizen and mother” (Costlow, Sandler, and Vowles 286–87, n. 57).

37. Costlow Sandler, and Vowles also note that it is impossible to dissociate Russian conceptions of the body and sexuality from those found in the west, as it was often just these foreign conceptions and mores that were used as a negative basis from which to construct a positive Russian discourse; that is, Russia was often painted as everything (good, pure, clean) that the (bad, debauched, defiled) west was not. That this dynamic was used by the west vis-à-vis other foreign locales—including Russia—is probably obvious.

38. All three texts have been seminal in the investigation of how structures of gender are deeply imbricated with various forms of visual representation, and Mulvey’s theorization of the masculine/scopophilic gaze has been especially influential—although certainly not without its critics. Numerous authors have highlighted how the analysis, far from representing “universal” structures of the relationship between viewer/viewed, is located within and illustrative of a very specific cultural and intellectual space, and that the positing of (a de facto white, heterosexual) “universal” viewing subject forecloses the possibility of other subject positions and desires. See, for example, Evans and Gamman; hooks; Neale; Studlar (“Masochism”; In the Realm).

39. Several authors have connected this visual, mediated objectification of women and women’s bodies—in women’s magazines, advertising, pornography, and “mail order bride” websites—to the disturbing trends in violence against women and sexual trafficking in Russia (and Eastern Europe). See Hughes; Johnson; Penttinen.

40. Singers who have appeared in Maxim include the groups Serebro and VIA-Gra (as well as individual current or former members of the latter, including Vera Brezhneva, Svetlana Loboda, and Tat’iana Kotova), and singers Lena Katina (formerly of t.A.T.u), Zhanna Friske, Polina Gagarina, Valeriia, Anna Pletneva (of the group Vintazh), Nastia Kamenskikh, and Natal’ia Ionova (who often performs under the name Gliukoza), among many others. . . Notably, one singer—Marina Abrosimova—has chosen to perform under the name “Maksim,” and has (not surprisingly) been featured on more than one occasion in the magazine’s pages.

41. Ong, for example, has noted the voice’s capacity to index presence on numerous levels. Of course, such a supposition is not without its problems, and Derrida, among others, has interrogated this putative indexical relationship in relation to text (as well as recording).

42. Smoke (from flames, flares, or other sources) and/or fire extinguisher discharge are arguably central to creating the scenes—including the obscuring of the visual—in the protest/actions filmed and later edited into music videos for the songs “Putin zassal” (“Putin Pissed Himself”), “Death to Prison, Freedom to Protest,” and “Kropotkin Vodka.”

43. The obscuring of the members’ faces may be reminiscent of the female punk band the Bags, who, as suggested by the moniker, performed with paper bags over their heads. Pussy Riot members themselves suggest a link to previous artistic practices and bands, stating “it’s possible to find features of 1990s Actionism in our performances, while the motif of the closed face of the performer — which has been used by many music bands such as Slipknot, Daft Punk or Asian Women on the Telephone, for instance, is borrowed from conceptual art where the tradition of not showing one’s face is present” (qtd in Chernov).

44. Phelan, for example, suggests that, “[i]n framing more and more images of the hitherto under-represented other, contemporary culture finds a way to name, and thus to arrest and fix, the image of that other.” Visibility thus engenders “voyeurism, fetishism, the colonial/imperial appetite for possession” (6).

45. The quote is from the Archive of the Official Site of the 2008–12 Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, accessed at http://archive.premier.gov.ru/eng/events/news/9637/; the original Russian can be found at http://archive.government.ru/docs/9637/print/ (both accessed 14 Mar. 2015).

46. According to some, Putin’s disappearance from the public eye for over a week in early March of 2015 was due to his having traveled to Switzerland to attend the birth of his child with Kabaeva. The rumors, of course, have been unsubstantiated, and numerous other speculations—some more plausible than others—have circulated to explain the disappearance (an attempted coup, a particularly severe case of the flu, or recuperation from plastic surgery).