Unknown Quantities
Edition 2

Abject

From the Editors

For the second issue of Unknown Quantities, we explore "the abject" as a state of being cast off. We shed light on how abjection moves beyond theory into the real world of social and cultural transgression through an exploration of personal experiences, cultural practices and everything in-between. This dialogue examines how being cast off shapes our individual and collective identities as well as informing the spaces we inhabit.

The abject is a contradiction. It is part of the foundation of our identity, but at the same time reveals how unstable and fragile that foundation is.

In creating this issue of UQ, we, designers and writers, have embraced Julia Kristeva's notion (from 'Powers of Horror', 1982) of the subject itself performing abjection and have carried out a type of abjection ourselves. UQ takes an abstract subject and sheds light on how it moves to a concrete space, how it changes shape along the way as new meanings and associations are constantly added.

This issue of UQ is an attempt, through text and image, to unveil the spaces the abject inhabits, both real and imagined, within history, society, culture and art – and most importantly, within ourselves.

Editorial

Tara Aldughaither Natalie Baerselman le Gros Siyi Chen Janice Mitchell Rhianne Sinclair-Phillips Kelly Worman Lina Al-Amoudi Elif Gürbüz Anna Lascsik Micol Montesanti Ines Smudja Tina Touli

Contents

The (W)hole Picture — Transgressing/Abjecting Subjectivities in Art Kelly Worman & Janice Mitchell A Conversation with a Space Fairy Natalie Baerselman le Gros Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body Bethany Rose Lamont You Have Shamed Us Tara Aldughaither Rejecting and Accepting Abjection in Mainstream Art Natalie Baerselman le Gros A Knee-Jerking Re-Education Jake & Dinos Chapman The Desire for Immportality and the Fear of Death Siyi Chen The Blessing and the Curse Rhianne Sinclair-Phillips Rebecca Morgan Getting Rid of Yourself Janice Mitchell Lingua Trauma a la Mexicana: visualising drug culture in Mexico Marisol Rodriguez The Bad Abject-Object Kymia Nawabi

Details

• 176 x 250 mm
• 116 pages
• Edition of 200
• Printed by Push, London
• ISSN 2055-1479

With thanks

Alison Green, Nick Kimberley, Sam Ashby, Rebecca Ross, Marcus Leis Allion, Rebecca Wright, Tracey Emin, Bethany Rose Lamont, Roger Sabin, Grace Neutral, Jake & Dinos Chapman, White Cube, Shurooq Amin, Rhianne Norbert-Davis, Ayyam Gallery, Justin Dingwall, Rebecca Morgan, Kymia Nawabi, Marisol Rodriguez, Bruno Ceschel, Richie Manu, James Ratnarajah