UGLY

The construct of ‘Beauty vs Ugly’ is the most perplexing in our imagination. Is there really such a thing as ugliness? It’s commonplace to assume the answer is ‘yes’. And it is common to assume that ugliness is necessarily bad. What is ugliness? Is ugliness the exact opposite of beauty? When examining the history of ugliness, it would be oversimplified to see ugliness only as the opposite of beauty. Obviously, the concept of beauty and ugliness not only varies from culture to culture, but also changes over time. I don’t really like to wander in the puddles of relativism, but the more I think about ugliness, the more I see it, the more difficult it becomes to understand. Aesthetics is the science of beauty, but it’s an imprecise science. In fact, in terms of evidence and repeatable experimental results, and peer review, it’s not a science at all. This zine explores the topic of 'Ugly' in artistic terms and briefly explores its multiple aspects in historical as well as contemporary terms.