IN THE MAGAZINE

Ada (a), 2007, by Jack Walls

DICK FACE - PART 2

Why Is Jack Walls the Coolest Motherfucker on Earth?

That was our initial bond. You had Mapplethorpe prints and Patti Smith drawings, and it was a clutter of art books and weird art objects and postcards everywhere. It was 20 years of collecting stuff. All I could think was, this was the coolest place I’d ever been to. I’ve styled my own place based on how yours was. You knew so much and you taught me so much.

But at that point in my life I had turned my back on the art world. I definitely didn’t think of you in terms of being an artist. I remember one night, you were about to drop out of college, and you said, “Jack, I don’t know what I’m going to do now. I’m not gonna get a job and I’m not gonna bartend.” And I remember thinking, OK, he’s on the right track, because that’s exactly how anyone I’ve ever known who ever did anything with themselves did it—they never developed another skill. That’s the trick. I’m gonna be an artist and nothing else. And that’s when I decided I would help you. And I helped get you that show at 420 West Broadway.

That was my first photo show. You also helped me get my first internship. You always helped me out. Yet I never took your advice, and you were always right. You’re always like, “You’re so stupid. I told you two years ago not to do that!” So tell me about this new art project of yours.

Well, last winter I started making collages and I’m going to have a show of them at Fuse Gallery this February.

What inspired the collages?

Last year around this time I quit smoking. And every time I wanted to smoke a cigarette I did a collage instead. And the next thing you know I had 66 of them! That’s the truth. I’m not gonna make it seem like Robert came to me in a dream and said I should make collages from one of his images.

The image in your collages is a Mapplethorpe photo of a girl named Ada. Tell me about her.

I met Ada in the summer of 1982. She was walking down 8th Street with an old friend of mine from Chicago, this Puerto Rican girl named Margie. She yelled out, “Hi-Fi!” which was my old nickname from back home, and I turned around and said, “Margie!” And she said, “Oh, it’s Cita now, as in mamacita.” She had a blond mohawk and Ada was bald and rail thin. I thought, “What a look!” I was headed over to Robert’s and I invited them to come along. He photographed both of them that day. Later that summer, the girls were living in Queens and I heard that both of them got pregnant at the same time. They disappeared. That day is a special memory for me and I’ve always loved that image. Robert did too.

How did you meet Robert Mapplethorpe?

Oh, everyone knows that story. It’s old and gray and dusty.

I love that story and I want to hear it again.

Fine, we met in 1982 because I had just gotten out of the Navy and was living in the West Village, the hub of gay activity. Christopher Street was the center of the universe if you were a fag. I would see Robert around and check him out because he was a good-looking cat.

Who cruised who first?

We cruised each other. We would look at each other and finally one day he gave me his number. I called him up that night and he invited me out for dinner. We met at the Pink Teacup and then we never stopped seeing each other.

Ada (b), 2007, by Jack Walls


Wait, I thought you told me that you met in an ice-cream parlor.

Well, I saw him around for a while before we actually met. Eventually he came up to me and handed me his business card, which just said “Robert Mapplethorpe, photographer.”

I love that story because you told me that it was the middle of summer and he was wearing full leather and getting ice cream.

Yeah, it was 99 degrees out and he had on those motorcycle boots that go all the way up your leg. Eating a big waffle cone. I’ll tell you he had a great look. He was the most amazing-looking fucking beautiful boyfriend I’ve ever had. The best boyfriend ever. Let me tell you something, I loved Robert. Still to this very day.

When I look at pictures of Robert, I think, oh my God, if I saw that guy on the street I would have sex with him in a minute.

He was something else, darling. Who would have thought when I met him in 1981 that he would be dead by 1989?

Tell me about the early days of AIDS.

There’s nothing to talk about. It was just sad.

Well, I like talking about it because it’s been a big part of both our lives. Robert and my older brother Michael both got HIV at around the same time. For all we know they could have fucked each other.

Probably not… Maybe they both fucked the same person.

Yeah, my brother was into black guys too, so it is possible. How come Robert never did heroin?

He did it once. But, you know, Robert was bourgeois. Robert was piss-elegant. He didn’t want to hang out with a bunch of junkies.

In 1985 Basquiat painted your portrait for a series he was doing of all the downtown black kids on the scene at the time. What was it like being painted by him? Was it interesting seeing his process?

Nah, we were just smashed on heroin. But I tell you one thing, I had done so much heroin that day that when I left there I got amnesia. It’s the only time that’s ever happened in my life. I was walking around Manhattan and it was snowing and for about four hours I could not remember who or where I was.

Can I ask you about your sex life?

You know what? Honestly, I don’t have a sex life.

You are such a liar.

But see, if I talked about my sex life I would incriminate people.

Well, you don’t have to use their names.

Yeah, but it’s not even that important. I mean, you suck a dick, you suck a dick.

INTERVIEWED BY RYAN MCGINLEY


TO BE CONTINUED:
DICK FACE | 1 | 2 | 3 |

See all articles by this contributor

Comments

Anonymous, on Sep 17, 2009 wrote: Can Ryan McGinley do anything other than talk about himself? It’s always, "We were so wild back then, we did so much coke, it was all just so sad and dramtic and meaningful ..." People who talk about their lives this way are idealizing them.

Anonymous, on Feb 3, 2009 wrote: I’ve been hearing about this dude for years!! haha