H-U-M-A-N-S-C-U-L-P-T-U-R-E

Mar 17, 2021 Artist Statements

SuperRare and Verisart

3 years ago

Editorial is open for submissions: [email protected]

“H-U-M-A-N-S-C-U-L-P-T-U-R-E” is an add-on collectible piece to Pussy Riot’s “PANIC ATTACK” series, created by a visual artist Yulia Shur in collaboration with Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova.

Relatively near future, year 2092.
Objectification of human beings has reached the next level.
“H-U-M-A-N-S-C-U-L-P-T-U-R-E” brings you to a dystopian future, you’re inside one of the toxic factories where human clones are being grown for consumption. Starting from the 80s of the 21th century, a new trend, surprising at first, started to take over.
It all was as an experimentation in small underground designer boutiques in the beginning, when hackers were dicking around by making clones (mostly female) for their own enjoyment. But quickly the trend took over the global market, and human rights groups could do little about it, because the industry became too profitable to be stopped.

The new law signed in 2085 states that any consumer who has means can stop by at one of the shops that each clone factory has and pick a clone, or simply make an order via AR set. Clones are used mostly for sex and as a food, because there’s no much protein resources left on the Earth.

The global planetary law does not allow to create more than 10.000 replicas of one unique human, but these laws are being broken all the time and there’re lots of counterfeit cloners on the market: it’s cheaper to decode one set of DNA and produce millions of clones using it. When the police busts illegal counterfeit factories, clones are being quickly slaughtered and dissolved, because it’s economically more viable than to pay giant fines for illegal clones production. The piece “H-U-M-A-N-S-C-U-L-P-T-U-R-E” shows slaughtered clones that are about to be put in H2SO4 acid shower to be dissolved.

Pussy Riot is a political art collective that started a movement in Russia and worldwide. Pussy Riot’s art was named by The Guardian among the best art pieces of the 21st century, Pussy Riot was named “Women of the year” (2012) by TIME magazine. In 2012 two of Pussy Riot’s members, including its founder Nadya Tolokonnikova, were sentenced to 2 years imprisonment for anti-Putin protests. Currently, in 2021, two members of Pussy Riot, Masha Alekhina and Lucy Shtein, are under house arrest facing 2 years in jail.

Yulia Shur is a Belarusian-born art photographer and self-portrait artist, based between Tokyo and Los Angeles. She shoots for magazines such as NYLON, King Kong , i-D Japan, MUSE, Office, Rolling Stone and others stretching the definition of photography using the toolbox full of shapes, lines, illusions, poisoned beauty, death, love and subconscious fantasies. Yulia has had 8 shows in japan in the last 5 years and won the gold prize at the Tokyo International Foto Awards 2020.