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A new video for CIRCA shows Nadya Tolokonnikova lighting an emoji eggplant candle as if lighting the fuse of a bomb.

Pussy Riot Roasts Fragile Masculinity for Women’s Day

Pussy Riot, Nadya Means Hope (2023). Rendering of video playing at London's Piccadilly Lights. © CIRCA.

CIRCA will show a video by Pussy Riot's Nadya Tolokonnikova on public screens around the globe for International Women's Day.

The 2.5-minute video Nadya Means Hope shows Tolokonnikova in a white balaclava lighting the wick of a purple candle-sculpture shaped like an emoji eggplant, the Internet's favourite phallic symbol.

'The pain of so many reverberates across the globe—women in the USA watch their granddaughters born with less rights than they themselves had, brave protestors in Iran facing death and jail, and the endless atrocities in Ukraine,' Tolokonnikova said in a statement.

'But in this violent crescendo of suffering, can we as humanity begin to trust to hope, or has it truly forsaken us?' she asked.

$1 by Pussy Riot (Nadya Tolokonnikova) #CIRCAECONOMY print series. Handsigned, £131.20

$1 by Pussy Riot (Nadya Tolokonnikova) #CIRCAECONOMY print series. Handsigned, £131.20 © CIRCA.

CIRCA and Tolokonnikova also developed a series of hand-signed prints featuring seven male faces on US currency notes painted over with balaclavas. A woman hasn't featured on US bills for over a century, since Martha Washington's portrait appeared on the one silver dollar note in the 1880s and 1890s.

The emoji eggplant sculpture, which is titled Fragile Masculinity, is being auctioned at Sotheby's as part of the online sale My Body, My Business from 7 to 14 March.

The auction, which features works by female-identifying artists, will raise funds to support sexual and reproductive health and rights organisations including Planned Parenthood.

$2 by Pussy Riot (Nadya Tolokonnikova) #CIRCAECONOMY print series. Handsigned, £131.20

$2 by Pussy Riot (Nadya Tolokonnikova) #CIRCAECONOMY print series. Handsigned, £131.20 © CIRCA.

These rights were gravely undermined when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year.

Commenting on the video, Marina Abramović said, 'I couldn't be happier to see Nadya and CIRCA collaborate. I support every woman's decision regarding planning parenthood.'

Abramović, Cindy Sherman, and Jenny Holzer are among the artists who donated works to My Body, My Business. —[O]

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