An Aesthetic of Disgust: Expanded Performance as a Model of Cultural Understanding

Havana is one of the most picturesque cities in the Americas. At present, the city’s appearance is characterized by the ways that its inhabitants repair and restore their living spaces. Even though a good number of buildings in many areas of the city are in poor condition, their inhabitants continue to live in them and dedicate themselves to beautifying their dwellings. Cubans prioritize aesthetic solutions for their homes since they lack the means to carry out repairs. This process of beautification entails making use of any materials they can access, even if they are not the ideal or appropriate ones. Cubiertas de deseos (Covered with Wishes, 2008) is a video installation that documents that strategy. The images show very deteriorated apartment building facades that are decorated in a piecemeal manner by the inhabitants of individual units who cannot obtain permits to engage in needed structural repairs. Masking decay with any swash of color at hand generates a particular kind of visuality, an expression of precariousness that is both literal and metaphorical.

Figure 1.

Collage of stills created by Grethell Rasúa Fariñas from her video installation, Cubiertas de deseos (2008).

I investigate this aspect of my social reality through the use of aesthetic polarities, juxtaposing beauty with repulsiveness. I employ thematic and visual contrast, using all the resources, materials, and questions that support a binary discourse. To decipher the sensory experience of things, to create a liminal space where the beautiful and the repulsive coexist, entails the recovery of that which we usually seek to exclude. The rejected entities that we seek to expel from our midst define us as social beings. My approach to the abject begins with materials that are usually considered repulsive, such as human excrement, and from there extends to an exploration of contexts in which abjection is made manifest in people’s attitudes, behaviors, and ways of living. Beauty manages to seduce because of its capacity to mask through acts of adornment, decoration, and embellishment. These are beauty’s seductive means of securing our attraction and acceptance of things. By contrast, the abject repels any intent at generating comfort. The challenge for me is to create an experience in which to enjoy that which is repulsive, make it agreeable, capable of provoking visual pleasure.

In many of my works, I engage in a process of creation that presents itself as service to others. I characterize my practice as a form of relational aesthetics. I try to take advantage of dirtiness, states of debasement and decadence, putting them at the disposal of constructs that are graced with handsomeness. My negotiations with others take a variety of forms, from accepting proposals to produce particular works to acquiring materials from others to making the final works available through loans and sales.

Figure 2.

Collage created by Grethell Rasúa Fariñas showing pieces made for her project Con todo el gusto del mundo (2004).

I began one such ongoing project in 2004, entitled Con todo el gusto del mundo (With All the Taste in the World). This piece is developed on the basis of commissions from others and its form depends on their taste. I offer the service of creating a functional object using the individual’s bodily waste. They only have to request their desired object, then stipulate the design and the particular kind of waste I should use to make their desired object. The forms correspond to popular aesthetic tastes since part of my agreement with the individuals involved is that I will transfer their imaginary to the product that they will eventually use. I try to sell each piece at a price that makes it accessible to the person who requested it. The price is also determined by the characteristics of the object. For example, the wedding rings made of gold and blood sold for CUC$150 (about US$150.00). After a process of elaboration, we have unique pieces that are completely functional...