Allure of the Abject

2022

June 3 – June 14

SITE Sharp Gallery

Curator

SITE Gallery Assistants: Bri Pizarro, Matthew Cortez, and Sarah Grogan

Contributing Artists

Anika Jeyaranjan, Dillon Bryant, Edie Xu, Fernanda Carvalho Santos, Goldie, Inaara Vishnani, Maddie May, Riley Lynch, and Ryan Zhao

Exhibition Statement as Preserved in the SUGS/SITE Archives:

In her seminal essay Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection (1982), Kristeva described the abject as “fear having been bracketed, … [in confrontation] with otherness, a burden both repellent and repelled, a deep well of memory that is unapproachable and intimate.” 

 

The abject involves a deconstructing and reconstituting of one’s sense of self, of peeling back the veneer of civility to see our true selves for what we are. It constitutes the liberation of our repressed subconscious and desires. 

 

Amidst increasing disenchantment with idealism and romanticism brought upon by our contemporary anxieties it seems we are pervaded by a sense of desolation. Disillusioned, many of us have begun making a turn towards the abject.