Pussy Riot! 10 Questions with Scarlett Luv

10 Questions: • Part 1: Bitches • Part 2: Mermaids • Part 3: Pussy Riot •

[scarlett.luv]:

5. What’s Your Next Public Artwork?

From April 2009 to July 2013 VBCO created 50 Virtual Performance Artworks in a number of virtual worlds. As an artist it’s kind of silly to give yourself a title other than “artist,” nonetheless I’m changing my self-description from Virtual Performance Artist to Virtual Public Artist. More than a different direction for the art, it reflects the title catching up with where the art has been heading. Our pieces have always been in public spaces. Over time they’ve come to have less formal design from me. They’ve come to have more individual expression by community members. So that’s the focus of my new Virtual Public Artist career.

Yesterday I spoke about America silencing Bradley Manning or China silencing Ai Weiwei. I’m not sure nations care what anyone thinks. They’re so powerful. And you can only get so worked up about governmental abuse when you’ve got hours and hours of reality TV to watch backed up on your DVR. Still. However futile. We have to at least open our mouths. If we can inform one person, maybe we accomplished something small. Even as Russia grants limited asylum to Edward Snowden, they continue to persecute the courageous women of Pussy Riot.

So my new Virtual Public Artist career begins here in August. With a mission to,

Inspire avatar communities to express their identity, discover their culture, and demand their civil rights.

Pussy Riot Solidarity Parade

I’m happy to announce Activity #1 – Pussy Riot Solidarity Parade
• Saturday the 17th of August
• 10am – Noon PDT / 17:00 – 19:00 GMT

I know it’s usually a “solidarity march.” But this IS Pussy Riot! We can have a serious cause and still have fun. Right? I’ll publish a Previz on it tomorrow. It’ll be a Pussy Riot Parade across 12 LEA sims and then we’ll have a dance party at the end with DJ Agnes streaming Pussy Riot tracks for us. DJ Agnes also made the Pussy Riot camisoles you see Vanessa, Agnes, and Moni wearing in the photo above. She’ll be sending them out to the VB Friends group. We might also have brightly colored Pussy Riot ski masks. And for sure, it’s your Pussy Riot Parade! Everyone should dress as they’re inspired to!
• Previz #75 – Pussy Riot Solidarity Parade – check the previz out tomorrow!

Pussy Riot Solidarity Parade. 3 protestors wear bright dresses and ski masks. Their hands are chained. Their mouths are gagged. They have Amnesty International logos on their arms.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich.

[scarlett.luv]:

6. Where do you live?

I’ve lived in The Hague for a few years now. I was born at Georgetown University hospital in Washington DC on 25 April 1969. My mother was a diplomat in the Reagan Administration and we moved around a lot. I spent most of my high school years at St. Joseph’s Convent in Castries, St. Lucia. My freshman year of college was at the University of California, San Diego, and the rest of my undergrad was at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts where I received a BFA in choreography. For grad school I attended Koninklijk Conservatorium here in The Hague. I started as a choreography student but wound up with an MFA in New Media.

[scarlett.luv]:

7. Are you married?

Funny you should ask. Yes! Twice. Well, not at the same time! 😀 I was married to Mark Zackerly for 10 years. Nothing ugly happened, we just drifted apart. 2 years and 2 months ago I married Ze Moo at Covent Garden in London. What a beautiful space. What a beautiful day. Well, the good news is that Ze really gets me. He understands me, better I think, than maybe anyone else in this world. Unfortunately we’ve drifted apart too. It could be my, you know, lack of “putting out,” or maybe it’s his playboy, vagabond ways. IDK. But since you asked, you can be the first to know (even before Ze!) We’re getting a divorce! It’ll be in half a year. Saturday 18 January ’14. I put up a website for friends to help celebrate our divorce. It’s not set up yet, but you’ll be finding info at:
• divorce.vanessablaylock.com

The plan is for all our friends, and enemies too of course, to show up and take sides. So we’ll have peeps stomp off on the Vanessa side or the Ze side and then we’ll have a super-ginormous food fight. We will throw a lot of stuff. It will be a very messy sim. So much food. And frogs. You can’t really have a good fight without throwing a bunch of frogs too. Ze has to pick his Best Litigator, and of course I’ll need my Legal Council of Honor, and all the legal team maids. I’m confident this will be the funnererest divorce ever. I’m working on the gift registry now! Oh, and we’ll be going back to where it all began, Covent Garden, London.

[scarlett.luv]:

8. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?

It doesn’t. I’m an atheist. I’m a materialist. Not like a Madonna “Material Girl,” but like a Watson & Crick “reductionist biologist.” I wish I could believe. But I way don’t. I actually have more “faith” in my lack of faith, than almost anything else in life.

[scarlett.luv]:

9. Whats your favorite food?

I’ve never eaten a lot of meat. Over the years I’ve eaten ever less. But always some. It’s funny, but it was actually reading Lisa See’s book Snowflower and the Secret Fan earlier this year that I finally decided to get off the fence and become a vegetarian. I’ve started to see the slaughtering of animals, the military industrial complex, and patriarchal culture, as part of a constellation. It is the dominant constellation in our culture. It is a constellation I’d like to move away from.

Oh, haha, sorry! Not, “what don’t you eat?” but “what do you like?”! I really should read these interview questions more carefully. Yes! I make a mean Chai Maté! By “Chai Maté” I mean: Chai Latte + Spice Nut Maté = Chai Maté. I use a blend of Chai, Maté, and varying other things to make it. Oh, and it’s best if you add way too much milk and way too much sugar. Well, now I use vanilla almond milk (or soy milk) instead of milk. Hot in the winter. Iced in the summer. Yum!

[scarlett.luv]:

10. What turns you on creatively, spiritually, emotionally or otherwise?

People who ask questions. Of themselves. Of each other. Of their governments. People who ask why things are this way. Why am I this way? People who are curious. Adventurers. People who say,

i just realized i know nothin of you at all

and ask you to answer 10 questions. You turn me on Scarlett. Is it time to dance now?

L i n k y . L i n k y

• Scarlett Luv / The League of Extraordinary Fashionistas
• Pussy Riot / Monerda Skute
• Pussy Riot / Free Pussy Riot.org
• Pussy Riot / GQ.com Prison Interview
• Pussy Riot / HBO Documentaries
• Pussy Riot / Facebook
• Scarlett Johansson / Illustration by Luv Drawing

10 Questions: • Part 1: Bitches • Part 2: Mermaids • Part 3: Pussy Riot •