Zhukova Dasha

A gay artist from Russia has responded to the controversy surrounding Garage magazine’s photo of a white, female editor-in-chief sitting on a “black woman” chair. Editor-in-chief of Garage magazine, Dasha Zhukova, sparked outrage on social media when the photo was posted on Jan. 20, which was Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Many accused Zhokova of being racially insensitive.

NY-based Russian artist and gay activist Alexander Kargaltsev responded to the controversy with his own image of a “chair” featuring a white man on his back with his legs in the air. Do not click the link if you are offended by nudity.

Alexander Kargaltsev response to Black Woman Chair

In an email to Out There Magazine, Kargaltsev said:

[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.