Russian black bread is the stuff of legend. It is said that under the Nazi siege of the City of Leningrad residents had little more than black bread to eat for almost three and a half years. But what sustained a nation is also symbolic of its ultimate disintegration.

This crumbling half-loaf of Russian black bread is what remains of two loaves I bought while traveling to Leningrad, USSR in April 1984. It is a fitting symbol of the inner moral rot that brought the evil empire of Soviet Communism, that immiserated and slaughtered millions, to its ignominious end.

Materials: Russian black bread (Leningrad 1984), photograph Lenin statue (Leningrad 1984), wood, plywood, varnish, Plexiglass, lamps

Dimensions: 13 x 11 x 6in

September 2020