SINGAPORE — After spending almost two years in jail for a protest performance at a Moscow church, two members of Russian art collective Pussy Riot, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, said that they will “definitely continue with political activities”.

In town to attend the Prudential Eye Awards, this is their first trip out of Russia since their release, and the two women stated that they were working on a project to highlight the plight of Russian female prisoners.

“We will continue political activism to fight for prisoners’ rights,” said Alyokhina.

Pussy Riot is best known for works revolving around feminism, LGBT rights and opposition to Russian leader Vladimir Putin. In 2012, the pair was charged with hooliganism and imprisoned for a performance piece they did, entitled Punk Prayer: Mother Of God, Chase Putin Away.

Ironically, this particular performance, which was recorded and uploaded online as a music video, is the reason why the duo are in Singapore: Punk Prayer is shortlisted in the digital/video category of the Prudential Eye Awards.

The two thanked the Russian government, with Tolokonnikova pointing that if the government had not reacted the way it did, Punk Prayer probably wouldn’t have received such widespread attention. She said that any award they received for this piece didn’t just belong to them. “This media work is done not only by us but in co-operation with the Russian state and the Russian political system, which has promoted this case so heavily and has made it into what it is right now.”

She also mentioned that any future projects would be done under their own names, and not under the Pussy Riot label. Calling Pussy Riot an “open-face art collective”, Tolokonnikova said: “No one can talk in the name of Pussy Riot as it is an anonymous collective. Right now we have other people connected to our faith, but we cannot speak for them and rather prefer to speak for ourselves.”