After the press conference, this was another big highlight of my short, short stay in New York. We all - i.e. Impossible crew plus me as their over-exuberant lapdog and minus poor Birdclaws, who might regret not going forever - had an enormous Polaroid taken at the 20x24 Studio. On my way in, this gentleman caught my eye. He was dressed in a dark suit, a maverick tie and a wig and he was greeting everybody very politely and offering us all coffee mugs and sugar.
"You look very elegant," I said, "Are you here to have your picture taken?"
"No," he said, "It's just that when I go anywhere, I like to have a look."
"Oh," I said, "That's what I like to do too. I love to be overdressed. The main thing is to have a look. It matters very little what look, as long as it is a look. Wouldn't you say?"
He twinkled and ushered me over to the coffee pot.
"Can I take your picture?" I blurted. I was just so fascinated by his wig and his whole playful, self-effacing persona.
"Of course. Where? What should I do?"
"I like this kitchen. Could you do some American things in it? Sweep it and mop it and tend to it in a New York sort of way?"
And off he went, gathering up brushes and mops and all kinds of weird American food products about him and doing this whole American kitchen performance for me. I had to cram myself into the broom cupboard to get enough distance to get everything in the shot. Buckets and broomhandles were falling on me and I was laughing too much and he was swirling his mop around like a ballet dancer saying "Like this? Or this?"
"More manic, if you don't mind." I said.
When I managed to stop laughing enough, I said, "You're going to have to stop scrubbing quite so wildly for a second or two, you know. I'm supposed to be taking a picture of this."
I think he'd forgotten all about the pictures at this stage. He was just enjoying the experience of having a captive audience stuck in a tiny cupboard.
After he'd left, I found out that he was a crazy performance artist called Max Rada Dada. He takes self-portraits of himself with the Studio's giant Polaroid camera, balancing, for example, on ironing boards while dressed in a rather fetching boy scout's uniform. In some way, a kindred spirit.
Here's a link to something I found on Youtube about him.
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