March 25, 2023


Beauty is a Terrible Thing 
Jeanetta Rich



The Show 

Beauty is a Terrible Thing is a series of self portraits and video works by multi-disciplinary artist Jeanetta Rich. The gag in her series of photographs represent a choice of silence: to shut the fuck up and listen; to submit to softness; to surrender to love, joy and peace.

Feminism was intended to create choices for women, but it has remained a symbolic gesture of the elitist class. She contemplates, if feminism is about choice why is it that most women live between a rock and a hard place? Feminism has only been a political device and has not influenced change in communities of disenfranchised “cooxie” (ku:ʧɛ). It lacks utility for working-class women; or any woman for that matter. Through allegorical renderings and poetic language Jeanetta  attempts to define intersectional activism within the liminal space between erotic and sacred, crass and formal, institution and havoc.
    The Artist

    Jeanetta P. Rich (b. 1989, Chicago) @jeanettaprich
    https://jeanettarich.cargo.site/

    Curated by Ezequiel Olvera at Court Space @court_space
    Court Space Website

    Jeanetta Rich is a mother and poet based in Los Angeles. Her work focuses on the emotional lives of voiceless women, those who have been silenced through poverty and/or lack of education. Most recently her work was included in Texte Zur Kunst 30th anniversary issue "The Feminist" and has been published in No. 11 from the The Quarterless Review. Other publications include Changes Press, Polyesterzine and Deluge. The film Desperate LA written and directed by Jeanetta Rich won Best Narrative Short at IMFF 2021 and premiered at Metrograph NYC.



    Jeanetta Rich, "Beauty is a Terrible Thing" at The BAG, 2023. Photos by Ezequiel Olvera.