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Abstract
The following contribution is divided into two parts. The first part consists of a brief essay
that describes the contents of Alix Lambert's film, The Mark of Cain. The second part is an interview with the filmmaker and artist. In the
interview, Ms. Lambert discusses the differences between documentary filmmaking and conceptual art practices; she reflects on the
nature of representation and examines the relationship between the symbolic content of Russian prison tattoos and the new Russian
economy; and she compares the persistence of visual forms to the impermanence of meaning. That the two are interrelated is of special
interest to Ms. Lambert, whose film records the vicissitudes of a faded visual idiom and reveals the non-identical sameness of form,
homologically aligning tattoos and economic order. In both her video still-images and in her interview, Ms. Lambert attempts to make
explicit what is inexplicit, all the while admitting to the disruptions, hesitations and gaps in doing so. In her film, a prisoner states that
"You can learn a lot about a prisoner from his tattoos." In the hands of Ms. Lambert, we can learn a lot about tattoos from prisoners. And
from tattoos, we can learn a lot about the decline of a culture.
The Mark of Cain, a feature-length documentary by Alix Lambert, explores the dying art of Russian prison tattoos to offer audiences an understanding of conflict and transition in contemporary Russia. Through intimate interviews that enable the prisoners to talk about their life experiences, body art and living conditions, a powerful story emerges of tension between prisoners of different generations and different social-economic systems. The Mark of Cain documents for the first time the disappearing artistic practice of Russian prison tattoos; further, the project investigates the nature of change in Russia by examining what is happening in the country's prisons.
As early as the 1920s, Russian prisons and Gulag began to attract the attention of researchers. The prisoners of the Stalinist Gulag, or "Zone," as it is called, developed a complex social structure that incorporated highly symbolic tattooing as a mark of rank. The very existence of these inmates at prisons and forced labor camps was treated by the state...