Panel 1
Henrietta's Narration: Why do I do it? I'm not sure that I know. Maybe I hate the world. Maybe I just hate western society. Perhaps I hate myself as well. Wouldn't one have to, to love the things I do?
Panel 2
Henrietta's Narration: As a child, in the park on a downtown summer Saturday, only the trash cans could hold my attention. At school, while the others incorporated the best of all previous worlds into their designs, my eyes were fixed on the concrete floor. As I stalk the streets, I see a red door and I want it replaced with a forty foot windowless steel cylinder.
Sign: City Hall/ 1897/ East Entrance
Panel 3
Henrietta's Narration: It's easy, what I do. The proposal precedes my arrival by three weeks. Maybe they only bring me in because they can't quite believe the blueprints, or maybe it's the ribald photo I included with the package.
Poster: Planning session 2 for proposed shopping center
Panel 4
Henrietta's Narration: They tell me what they're looking for. I ignore it. I tell THEM what they're looking for. They soon agree. It's easy, what I do.
Henrietta: You like asymmetry, don't you?
Sweating man: E-everyone likes assymetry!
Paper in folder: Site Specs
Poster: Planning meeting timetable/ shopping plaza/
Panel 5
Henrietta's Narration: It's regressive, I realize – to use oneself in this manner. But is it fun? Of course it is. They can't look away. The room is mine. I tell myself they have the free will to ignore me and they choose not to. I only take what I'm given. Just like the others before me. Le Corbusier. Libeskind. Gehry. The room was theirs, too. Is it self-hating? Is it immoral? Surely one is free to occasionaly manipulate a municipal zoning comittee without fear of eternal damnation. Right?
Panel 6
Henrietta's Narration: My Designs go right to their groins. The announcements are made. The media hails it a triumph. They sing my name. Two strangers in the night, each getting what they think they want.
Podium sign: City Hall
Panel 7
Henrietta's Narration: But then in the cold light of morning, when the project sits completed – bitter regret. For them, at least. Of course by then I'm on the move, on to the next willing victim.
City planner: What have we DONE?!
Sign: Welcome to SunnyVale Shopping Plaza!
Henrietta's Narration: Why do I do it? Maybe I do just hate the world.
