08 Feb 2010, Posted by jay rusovich in Jay Rusovich, 0 Comments

Talking to Strangers.

The Dallas Art Fair is in its second year, and already it draws thousands of industry people and art enthusiasts from around the country who are interested in exploring the world of established and emerging artists.

As a bonus, if you want to get laid on a first date without spending $200 on dinner and drinks, attendance is on par with a Vermont Teddy Bear.

Okay, so now you get the picture:

Art brokers, buyers, enthusiasts…and the obligatory cadre of gold-diggers who don’t give a rat’s ass about art, unless you consider them art, in which case they become art brokers by default.

Think two gigantic floors of humanity pursuing art, sex and money – and sometimes, me.

With this in mind, I interacted with complete strangers without a break. And as the low blood sugar started kicking in, I started to hallucinate, which they also seemed to enjoy.

Anyway, people were eager to learn more about my work, which drags with it a certain perverse relevance.

Here’s a snapshot:

So, what exactly did you intend to convey when you transformed a muscular black man into a Christ figure?

If the photograph moved you enough to ask, you already know. If Jesus Christ showed up at the Dallas Art Fair, the only way he’d make the evening news is if he resembled the guy in the shot. If he looked like everyone else, he’d be in a straight jacket.

Is that a man or a woman in that photograph?

Thank you for asking, which is precisely the point. Gender is irrelevant. The photograph explores the empty harvest of pathological narcissism, otherwise known as vanity, which I happen know a lot about after 22 years of therapy.

I really like the humor in the photograph of the woman with the gun to her head next to the mannequin with the Financial Times. I totally get it.

I seemed to have hit a nerve. I also have an unpublished negative of the same woman with the gun to his head if that would interest you.

There’s a woman dancing with a skeleton in one of your shots. I’m not sure she likes it.

Death is inevitable no matter what your ass looks like, which is a shame, frankly.

More to come…