The Abject Body:
The word abject means extremely bad unpleasant, degrading.
The turn “abject art” has only been used since 1990 and comes from the book: Pouvoirs de I'horreur. Essai sur I'abjection (1980) by Julia Kristeva.
Julia Kristeva describes the abject as that which disturbs identity, system and order and does not respect borders, positions rules. It is that which defines what is fully human and explores boundaries between self and other, challenging our bodily identity. Most of what is abject centres around the body. Things like: excreta, urine, vomit, bodily fluids and open wounds: those substances which are disturbing because they turn our insides out, dissolving the acceptable perimeters between inner and outer, living and dead, human and animal, male and female, clean and defiled, natural and supernatural.
It is not wrong to say that the abject consists of those elements, particularly the body that transgresses and threatens our sense of cleanliness and propriety.
In practice the abject covers all the bodily functions, or aspects of the body that are deemed impure or inappropriate for public display or discussion. The abject has a strong feminist context in that female bodily functions in particular are abjected by a patriarchal social order.
For example Cindy Sherman's work disrupts the order by presenting it in such a glossy, easily accessible manner. If you don't put her work in an aspect of feminist theory, a lot of her work can be taken on a shallow level in which the patriarchal order isn't disrupted. However any deeper reading of her work shows the viewer how to access her image. You can see how easy it is to construct gender roles and expectation.
The work of John Bortolani and Marcorea Malia is about the main body, wearing wounds and soar of life on the other side. In contrast to the myth of eternal beauty that resists battle against time with these photos you want to demystify this concept to show that race is human all too human. Johns Bortolani and Marcorea Malia work is about transforming reality.
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