Text of the Artwork
DESPERATE LA
Screenplay [Excerpt 0:00 - 7:47] Total Run Time: 15:21
Opening Scene: Interior. Day. Loft Apartment.
Sound of distant hiss of traffic.
Open on a moving image of a young black woman
She is lying face down on an unkempt bed
on a mattress placed directly the floor,
sheets are tangled around her.
She is wearing a tie-dyed T-shirt and panties.
This is my dead cat pose.
Her back heaves up and down
She cries gently to herself
still lying on her stomach
her hands tucked under her hips
She pushes herself up on her forearms
and reaches for her phone on the floor,
She holds it both hands
and begins to go through her message
I practice holding my breath mostly
She unlocks the phone with her code
and peers into the black phone screen
She reads a text thread from earlier that morning
Someone texted someone at 7:49 AM
Miss you
Whoever that was replied at 7:50 AM
Let's meet up at Rocco's tonight?
And she responded back sometime afterwards
Where are you?
Please respond to my fucking texts
She startes into the screen for a moment longer
and then folds it face down onto the floor
her arms still outstretched in front her
like she is diving, she lowers her face into the pillow
I bury my desires here
before I have to wake up
and face the inevitable that day
crying, masturbating
Woman rolls over onto her side
arms flop forward to cover her face from bright sun
She pushes herself up with effort
tucks smart phone into the elastic of her sheer stockings
and rises from bed with great effort.
Scene Two: Interior. Day. Bathroom Area.
Clawfoot tub in the foreground
Woman runs a bath for herself.
She removes her underwear and T-shirt
She stands there naked,
gently rocking herself back and forth
like a child, waiting for the tub to fill.
She tests the temperature of the water
grazing its surface with her fingertips.
She slips her body down into the bathwater
and then covers her mouth and laughs at herself.
She sees she's climbed into the bath
still wearing her stockings.
She rolls the nude nylons down her long legs
slowly until she has removed them.
She wrings the water out of the stockings
and sets them to the side of the bathtub.
Then, the woman reaches for a large hardcover book
set upon a ledge at the front of the bathtub.
"Mahabarata" in large all cap letters
are printed on the spine of the book.
It is covered in plastic film, like a library book.
I've read the Mahabarata five times already.
I keep returning to the part about Draupadi[1]
and how she had five husbands
I don't have one
I don't have anyone
Scene Three: Interior. Day. Kitchen Area
Close up of a orange enamel metal tea kettler
Woman is now dressed in a tie-dyed T-shirt, jeans,
She is wearing a silver choker necklace.
She pours a cup of tea from the pot into a mug.
LA lacking ambition.
Lucky assholes.
Loopy affection.
Losing appetite.
I try to remember that tea exists.
Scene Four: Interior. Day.
Woman stands by a large window, looking out, pensively.
Almonds exist.
Woman visibly bites down
on a single almond
with an audible crunch.
I have a hard time remembering if I exist.
Woman looks out the window
opens it, sticks her head outside,
breathes in deeply, closing her eyes.
Scene Six: Exterior. Day. Echo Park Neighborhood.
Crosswalk at Alvarado St and Sunset Blvd.
Wordless background music of chanting breathy voices.
Woman jogs through cross walk,
She is in a hurry.
At the bus stop, woman hunts
through her handle bag,
pulls out a small pink cardboard box
that say "pregnancy test."
She puts it back in the bag and looks down.
Somehow this all feels like that Destiny's Child song, "I'm a Survivor".
City bus pulls alongside the curb.
Woman moves towards it
She slowly slips a face mask on
pulling the straps backward over her ears
and gets on board.
I'm definitely not Beyoncé. I'm more like Michelle. Great voice. Never heard.
Scene Seven: Exterior. Day. City Sidewalk. Storefronts. Los Feliz Neighborhood.
No background music. Just the sound of running feet.
Woman runs towards the storefronts.
She approaches a glass door
labeled "Desperate". She stops there.
Looking down into her open handle bag.
she breathily whispers to herself
Oh, please.
She is rummaging through her bag
She is looking for something frantically.
She whispers to herself
What?
Woman looks around.
She peers inside the storefront,
She is looking for someone to help her.
She pulls back. Exasperated.
Scene Eight: Exterior. Day.
Concrete alleyway adjacent to Storefront.
Woman is squatting next to the wall of the building.
She has pulled down her pants
her rear-end is bare to air.
Her handle bag is splayed next to her
lying flat on the pavement.
She seems to be opening the wrapper of some box,
She is taking something out of something
She starts peeing on the thing she is holding between her legs
She might be using the pregnancy test handled at the bus stop.
Woman looks up warily
She looks back and forth down the alley
She is concerned about being discovered, half-naked
Then, she looks down between her legs
trying to finish what she has begun.
She retrieves the plastic wand.
Now, it is clearly a pregnancy test device.
She holds the plastic wand tightly
gripping it between her two hands,
She glares down at the device,
as if re-reading its information in disbelief.
Her face is obscured by her long hair.
After a pause, she looks upward. Forward.
Her face is now visible.
A look of worry or dread appears in her eyes.
* * *
Scene Eleven: Interior Day. Fashion and Lifestyle Store.
In her workplace, Woman is folding clothes
placing them on shelves and arranging candles in rows.
Her Lady Boss approaches her and begins to speak to her.
I had the weirdest dream last night.
I had a dream that this really hot guy was like
walking through the forest shirtless.
My God, he was like so sexy.
He walks up to this pond
and he stands over the edge of this pond.
And then he unzips his pants
and pulls his big fat dick out
and starts jerking off.
Woman exhales sharply and responds with mock shock.
Oh my God! I really hope you get fucked today because this is like a weird
Lady Boss replies to Woman.
I guess that's what I need.
Anyways, out of nowhere
this fish comes swimming up to him
right as he's cumming
and it swallows his cum
and swims off.
* * *
Scene Thirteen: Exterior. Day.
Woman walks away from a health clinic
where she has been denied an abortion pill
because her iron levels are too low right now
She strides down a residential street
under the soaring concrete awning
of an apartment building in the middle of Koreatown.
She sits, alone, on a bench beside the curb
awaiting a bus to take her home.
LA
Wish you were here
Lingering apathy.
Lavish apprehension
Lustre abysmal.
END. CREDITS ROLL.
[1] Draupadi (Sanskrit: द्रौपदी, romanized: draupadī, lit. 'Daughter of Drupada'), also referred to as Krishnaa, Panchali and Yajnaseni, is the main female protagonist of the Hindu epic, Mahabharata and the consort of the five Pandava brothers—Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva.
About the Artist
Jeanetta P. Rich poet and filmmaker holds a mirror to desperation so that you can see yourself. Her work is part social critique and screwball scripture. Hailing from Los Angeles by way of whoredom, she writes about the emotional lives of voiceless women, those who have been silenced through poverty and/or lack of education.
By exposing the brain fucking women are subjected in our "waste culture" she calls for a need to switch off selfie mode and pull a community of women into focus, that otherwise would be ignored. Her past accomplishments include Meisner scholarship recipient at the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts and she holds BA in Theatre from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Most recently her work was included in Texte Zur Kunst 30th anniversary issue "The Feminist" and No. 11 in the The Quarterless Review. The film Desperate LA written and directed by Jeanetta Rich is set to premier summer 2021.
Curator’s Note
This film was originally introduced by the artist live and screened for Praxinoscope: Signs of the Zodiac at 1642 Bar, Historic Filipinotown, Los Angeles California on June 12, 2022.
PeformX Documents No. 2 containing printed documentation of texts drawn from this performance will be available for purchase September 2022.
Note: PerformX Documents are Free for Subscribers!
Production Notes
This podcast and performance series is hosted by Derek Denckla.
Sound was produced by John Dawson, Magnetic South Studios, ind him @magneticsouthrecordings and listen to his other projects at magneticsouth.bandcamp.com.
Our theme music “Alien Desert” was composed by Cato Gilmour @cato_gilmour.
Still images are the work of Derek Denckla, except where otherwise noted.
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