What’s a nice Girl like you
doing in a Place like this
I’m not looking for trouble
I don’t go and mess about
with ethno-things and images
or identity-politics and multi- and poly-issues;
I’ll take nothing less than a
supermodel.
So there can be no blame, concerning
the misuse of innocent victims,
she’s so much more beautiful
so much richer, and so much
more powerful than me,
so much for equality.
A nice Girl like you. Originally published in Portikus Frankfurt am Main 1987–1997, Portikus, Frankfurt am Main, 1997, p.257; and included in Marlene Dumas, Sweet Nothings. Notes and Texts, first edition Galerie Paul Andriesse and De Balie Publishers Amsterdam, 1998; and second edition (revised and expanded) Koenig Books London, 2014.