Is the above image offensive?
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. Buro 24/7 editor Miroslava Duma did release a statement in response to the backlash via her Instagram page:
"Dear all, Buro24/7.ru team and I personally would like to express our sincerest apology to anyone who we have offended and hurt. It was ABSOLUTELY not our intention. We are against racism or gender inequality or anything that infringes upon anyone's rights. We love, respect and look up to people regardless of their race, gender or social status. The chair in the photo should only be seen as a piece of art which was created by British Pop-Artist Allen Jones, and not as any form of racial discrimination. In our eyes everyone is equal. And we love everybody."Dasha Zhukova also released an apology statement:
"The chair pictured in the Buro 24/7 website interview is an artwork created by Norwegian artist Bjarne Melgaard, one of a series that reinterprets art historical works from artist Allen Jones as a commentary on gender and racial politics. Its use in this photo shoot is regrettable as it took the artwork totally out of its intended context, particularly given that Buro 24/7′s release of the article coincided with the important celebration of the life and legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.I regret allowing an artwork with such charged meaning to be used in this context. I utterly abhor racism and would like to apologize to those offended by my participation in this shoot.
Garage Magazine has a strong track record of promoting diversity and racial and gender equality in the worlds of art and fashion, and will continue in our mission to stir positive debate on these and other issues.""
But, some did not find the apologies 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."
Continue reading to view the reverse "gay" version of the image.
"I was forced to leave Russia because of the discrimination I experienced as a gay," Kargaltsev told The Huffington Post in an emailed statement Friday. "I'm disappointed that the tradition of xenophobia is so strong in my home country that such an image of Ms. Zhukova can appear as if it is normal and unremarkable. Russian people do not seem to realize when people offend the principle of color, nationality, sexual orientation and so on."
Kargaltsev explained the idea behind his photo to Out There Magazine, saying:
[I]t 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.
This is the other version of the chair.
[HUFFINGTON POST]