ABJECT ART

Following the publication of Julia Kristeva's POWERS OF HORROR, in which she outlines her theory or theories of abjection, numerous artists emerged experimenting it what became labeled as abject art.  It is an interesting movement that parallels a lot of the themes we are seeing and will see in this course.  In 1993 the Whitney Museum in New York created the exhibition Abject Art: Repulsion and Desire in American Art, which combined numerous artists producing work in the 1980s and 1990s.  The art often denotes an interest in the body or corporeality and especially transgressions of the body and our sense of cleanliness and propriety.  Abject artists toyed with ideas of censorship and obscenity:  what is deemed inappropriate for display and discussion.  Often noted for a feminist context, a challenge to patriarchal social order, abject artists such as Cindy Sherman, Louise Bourgeois, Gilbert & George, Paul McCarthy, and Carolee Schneemann, provoked audiences and changed the course of modern art. 

(Birth-Bourgeois-1994, Untitled-Sherman-1992, Cunt Scum-Gilbert & George-1977)

Assignment:  After briefly researching Abject Art, find a work that is part of the movement or you think ties in with the movement.  Simply explain why you are interested in that particular work and how it ties into some of the issues we have been discussing in class.  Due Tuesday March 1st.

The remaining films we will screen will have a noticeable preoccupation with the body and the intertwined experiences of desire and disgust.  These films stress the fragility of the body as well as our own fascination and fear of transgressing boundaries in context of violence and sexuality.  Below is a music video for the Klaxon's TWIN FLAMES, directed by Saam Farahmand, which touches on the abject through an orgy of conjoined bodies.  It is a video that is haunting, disturbing, and strangely beautiful: in essence, abject.