Puppy’s Play and Punishment presents new installation, performance, and video by Aika Akhmetova, evolving from a private studio ritual formed amid anti-LGBTQ repression in Kazakhstan. Adopting a Puppy persona, the artist moves from solitary acts to public actions on Fire Island. At Below Grand, multi-channel video, a leash-laden storefront installation, and live performances examine restraint, devotion, and defiant play, reframing taboo and brattiness as agency and survival.
