Race Matters: Gay Artist Responds To “Fashion” Pic With Photo Of Undressed Black Man Atop White Man

 Gay Russian artist who says he too found the racist “Garage” magazine “fashion” photo of a white woman using a black woman as a chair offensive has now created his own version of the pic to further illustrate the ridiculously racist nature of the original photo. Read more via Huffington Post : 

 

A gay artist from Russia has created a flipped image in response to the controversial photo of Garage magazine’s white, female editor-in-chief sitting on a “black woman” chair.

 

 The Russian editor-in-chief of Garage magazine, Dasha Zhukova, came under fire for an editorial photo showing her seated atop a chair designed to look like a black woman with a belt around her waist and thighs and her legs up in the air. The photo, which offended many, began circulating on Monday, Jan. 20, which was Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

 

Zhukova eventually apologized and called the decision to appear with such a racially insensitive piece of art “regrettable.” But, some did not find the apology sufficient.

 

 Alexander Kargaltsev, a gay New York City-based photographer and gay activist, decided to stage his own response to the “outrageous and tasteless” portrait with an image of a naked black man seated on a naked white man, whose legs are folded up to create a “chair.”

 

 He released a statement to Out There Magazine about his work: Dasha Zhukova’s choices for this image are appalling and unacceptable. I felt an immediate urge to respond to such a shocking visual statement by one of the most powerful Russian-speaking cultural entrepreneurs in the world. I was forced to flee my native Russia because of ubiquitous homophobia and xenophobia, and it deeply saddens me to see that racism is now being glamorized and thus made not only acceptable but trendy by the likes of Ms. Zhukova. My own composition reverses the visual injustice and offense perpetrated by that editorial and in a way restores the equality of genders, races, and sexual orientations.

 

Sadly, I understand very well that my work will be seen by most Russians as provocative and inappropriate, while that repulsive image (published on Martin Luther King’s Day of all days in a year) will hardly make anyone over there shake their head.” Kudos to this artist for shedding more light on this blatantly racist photo.