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You missed a spot: Artsy foot rubs by Rodriguez at last month’s Frieze Fair in London. (Images courtesy of Bert Rodriguez.)

For five days during the Frieze Art Fair last month, Miami artist Bert Rodriguez rubbed feet. His performance piece – Where You End and I Begin, for Miami’s Fredric Snitzer Gallery — consisted of giving art patrons 10-12 minute foot massages over the course of a week. The piece was a spectacle, attracting a full roster of clients (including Guardian critic Adrian Searle), as well as hundreds of onlookers. When he undertook the project, Rodriguez didn’t know the first thing about massaging, much less feet. But he quickly learned, consuming loads of lavender-scented massage oil in the process. Earlier this week, he made himself available via telephone to answer a few probing questions about the experience, including what it was like to rub his gallerist’s toes and which culture has the grossest feet.

C-M: How were the feet?
BR: Some were incredibly fucking disgusting. There were times where I honestly felt like I was going to vomit.

How bad was it?
Some of the feet I rubbed were swollen and bruised and there was black shit under toe nails. I was like, “Can’t you take a sponge or a toothbrush and scrub underneath that nail? I don’t think those colors exist in nature.” There was one man, his skin was falling off in my hands. His feet were fossilized. And then there were the odors. In some of the photographs, you can see that I’m turned away from the person.

Who had the best feet?
Mostly Asian women. They were perfectly smooth and well-kept. They were the most hygienic when it came to their feet. The Italian women also had very nice feet.

And the worst?
I don’t want to be an asshole, but the British really don’t take care of themselves. That’s always been a stereotype. Just like the teeth.

How does this experience lead you to regard the women who work at nail salons?
I was thinking about that while I was doing it. This is hard work. You deal with some nasty stuff. I found that a lot of people also use this as a way of airing their grievances. I became the hairdresser or the bartender.

What did you learn about feet by doing this?
I thought a lot about the metaphors. There was the relationship between artist and patron. Then there’s the idea of Jesus rubbing the feet of his disciples. That was something that a lot of people brought up. What’s interesting to me is that I appeared to be in this subservient position, but I was really in control. The people were a tool for me to create my work.

Did you rub any well-known feet?
No. But I did rub [my gallerist's] Fred [Snitzer’s] feet. It wasn’t supposed to happen. But there was this Italian television crew and they wanted to do an interview and needed an image of me massaging feet. So I rubbed Fred’s feet.

So what kind of feet does Fred Snitzer have?
They were old people feet. [Laughs.] They were wrinkly and the nails were a little longer than they should have been.