Allure of the Abject

SITE GALLERIES - Chicago, Illinois

Lead Curator

Curated by Briana Pizarro, Matthew Cortez, and Sarah Grogan 

With artwork by Anika Jeyaranjan, Dillon Bryant, Edie Xu, Fernanda Carvalho Santos, Goldie, Inaara Vishnani, Maddie May, Riley Lynch, & Ryan Zhao 

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.