- Chicago, Illinois, United States
Jeremy Biles
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Liberal Arts, Faculty Member
- Liberal arts, Philosophy Of Religion, Religion, Literature, Philosophy, Popular Culture, and 56 moreContemporary Art, Art Theory, Philosophy of Art, Art Criticism, Critical Theory, Religion and Literature, Surrealism, Abjection, Georges Bataille, Art and Religion, Religion and Contemporary Art, Art Theory and Criticism, Visual Arts, Literary Theory, Monsters and Monster Theory, Sacrifice (Philosophy), Paranormal, Popular Culture and Religion, Pop Culture, Madness and Literature, Psychoanalysis, Psychoanalytic Theory, Philosophy of Psychoanalysis, Photography, Dreams, Lucid Dreaming, Dream Interpretation, The uncanny, Disgust, Psychoanalysis and religion, Psychoanalysis and art, Psychoanalysis and culture, Religious Studies, Bataille Georges, Georges Bataille and Religion, Surrealism and Religion, Surrealism and the Sacred, Disruption, Women and Surrealism, Women Surrealists, Surrealist Women, International Surrealism, The Occultation of Surrealism in 1947, Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon, Surrealism and Race, Michel Leiris, Dadaism & Surrealism, Parody, Antonin Artaud, Deleuze, Decolonial Thought, Continental Philosophy, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, Gilles Deleuze, and Arts and Humanitiesedit
- I am an Associate Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where I teach courses on religion, philoso... moreI am an Associate Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where I teach courses on religion, philosophy, and art in the Department of Liberal Arts and the Department of Photography. I am the author of Ecce Monstrum: Georges Bataille and the Sacrifice of Form; co-editor of Negative Ecstasies: Georges Bataille and the Study of Religion; co-author of The Abyss, or Life Is Simple; an editor at the Religious Studies Review; and a founding member of the International Congress for Infrathin Studies, a group investigating the relations between surrealism and religion.
My research and teaching interests include philosophies of surrealism, surrealism and photography, surrealism and the sacred, surrealism as praxis, psychoanalysis, drawing, philosophy of religion, religion and contemporary art, religion and literature, theories of sacrifice, theories of the sacred, and bodybuilding. I am currently working on a surrealist project under the title The Erotics of Everyday Life.
My curatorial work includes a recent pair of exhibitions at Indiana University, while my drawings and sculptural work have appeared in exhibitions in and beyond Chicago. I am also a member of the experimental sound/image/text collaborative GALACTAGOGUE.edit
This paper analyzes the religious dimensions of the work of Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgaard, specifically his short essay "Slugs." It interprets the essay as an allegory for the birth of writing from the spirit of disgust.
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This is the co-authored introduction to the book The Abyss, or Life is Simple: Reading Knausgaard Writing Religion.
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Research Interests: Sociology of Religion, Psychoanalysis, Ethics, Philosophy Of Religion, Religion and Politics, and 29 moreSovereignty, Theory of Religion, Surrealism, Continental Philosophy, Continental Philosophy of Religion (Philosophy), Trauma Studies, Capitalism, Michel Foucault, Sacred (Religion), Neoliberalism, Desire, Sacrifice (Philosophy), Eroticism, Georges Bataille, Julia Kristeva, Cruelty, Sacrifice (Anthropology Of Religion), Dreams, Intimacy, Noise (Experimental Music), Teilhard de Chardin, Negativity, Ecstasy, Barebacking, Anthropology of Religion, Theories of the Sacred, Extremity and Excess, Acéphale, and Theories of Sacrifice
Introduction to Negative Ecstasies -- "Sacred with a Vengeance"
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Research Interests: Philosophy Of Religion, Surrealism, Continental Philosophy of Religion (Philosophy), Hegel, Friedrich Nietzsche, and 12 moreSacred (Religion), Sacrifice (Philosophy), Georges Bataille, Nietzsche, Simone Weil, G.W.F. Hegel, Literature and Religion, Monsters and Monster Theory, André Breton, Postmodernism and Religion, Hans Bellmer, and Monsters and the Monstrous
Despite Georges Bataille’s acknowledged influence on major poststructuralist thinkers—including Foucault, Derrida, Kristeva, Lacan, Baudrillard, and Barthes—and his prominence in literary, cultural, and social theory, rarely has he been... more
Despite Georges Bataille’s acknowledged influence on major poststructuralist thinkers—including Foucault, Derrida, Kristeva, Lacan, Baudrillard, and Barthes—and his prominence in literary, cultural, and social theory, rarely has he been taken up by scholars of religion, even as issues of the sacred were central to his thinking. Bringing together established scholars and emerging voices, Negative Ecstasies engages Bataille from the perspective of religious studies and theology, forging links with feminist and queer theory, economics, secularism, psychoanalysis, fat studies, and ethics. As these essays demonstrate, Bataille’s work bears significance to contemporary questions in the academy and vital issues in the world. We continue to ignore him at our peril.
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This experimental text reveals connections between magic, drawing, and anuses/anal eroticism in the work of occultist and artist Austin Osman Spare. It appears in a volume entitled Psychopathia Sexualis, published by Fulgur Press in... more
This experimental text reveals connections between magic, drawing, and anuses/anal eroticism in the work of occultist and artist Austin Osman Spare. It appears in a volume entitled Psychopathia Sexualis, published by Fulgur Press in conjunction with an exhibition of work by Spare from the archives of the Kinsey Institute, curated by Ryan M. Pfeiffer and Rebecca Walz. The exhibition took place at Iceberg Gallery, Chicago. This file comprises proofs; two footnotes are incomplete, with missing information indicated by pink font.
Research Interests: Religion and Sexuality, Sexuality, Surrealism, Transformation, Magic, and 15 moreScatology, Eroticism, Drawing, Magic and the Occult (Anthropology Of Religion), Occultism, Occult, Richard von Krafft-Ebing, Occult Esoteric Magick Spirituality, Austin Osman Spare, Anal eroticism, Kinsey Institute, Erotics and Aesthetics, Sex Magick, Religion and Eroticism, and Surrealism and Occult
An overview of Freud's thinking on religion, based in an autobiographical account. Part of the Religion: Macmillan Interdisciplinary Handbooks, general editor: Jeffrey J. Kripal; volume editor: Kent Brintnall.
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This paper offers a critique of the "rationalist bias" in the work of Jonathan Z. Smith, and commends a turn to the work of Georges Bataille as a corrective to Smith's inability to contend with excess in theorizing religion.
Research Interests: History of Religions, Georges Bataille, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, Sacrifice (Anthropology Of Religion), Jonathan Z. Smith, and 11 moreMircea Eliade, Bataille, Theories of Religion, Mircea Eliade, History of religion, Religious studies, Experimental Scholarship, Theories of the Sacred, Methodology In the Study of Religion, Theories of Religiion and Culture, Theories of Sacrifice, Georges Bataille and Religion, and Religion and Excess
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Research Interests: Sociology of Religion, Visual Studies, Art History, Art Theory, Interdisciplinarity, and 12 moreContemporary Art, Gender, Culture, Artistic Research, Art writing, Sacred Art, Mircea Eliade, Curation, Religion and Art, Sanskrit Studies, Sanskrit Aesthetics, Indian Philosophy, Indian Music, Dance and Arts, Writing in Visual Art, Artists’ Books, and Art ‘beyond the gallery’
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This article details the inception and activities of the International Congress for Infrathin Studies, a surrealist group interested in the relations between surrealism and religion.
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The images in the preceding pages constitute the second installment of an open series of collages by collaborative duo Ryan M. Pfeiffer and Rebecca Walz (Pfeiffer + Walz) under the title Solve et Coagula. In previous reflections on their... more
The images in the preceding pages constitute the second installment of an open series of collages by collaborative duo Ryan M. Pfeiffer and Rebecca Walz (Pfeiffer + Walz) under the title Solve et Coagula. In previous reflections on their work (RSR 48:1), I drew upon ulterior surrealist Georges Bataille's concept of "heterology" to comment on some conceptual and technical aspects of these works. Heterology entails the examination and activation of dynamic relations between "two polarized human impulses: EXCRETION and APPROPRIATION" (Bataille, 1985, 94). By Bataille's account, the usual orientation of human thought is toward appropriation, with excretion, taken to be a secondary impulse, serving only as the endpoint in establishing a "homogenous representation of the world." By contrast, heterological thinking and practice lead to a "complete reversal" of the usual course of human thought and impulses, such that appropriation "now serves excretion" (97). The "elementary form of appropriation is oral consumption, considered as communion (… incorporation, assimilation)," Bataille writes. Thus, "consumption is either sacramental (sacrificial) or not depending on whether the heterogeneous character of food is heightened or conventionally destroyed" (95). A heterological approach obtains in Pfeiffer + Walz's collages. The title of the series, Solve et Coagula, takes its name from the alchemical principle of transformation, where commonplace materials are broken down or dissolved (solve) in order to be recombined and resolved into new and extraordinary substances (coagula). In this sense, the destruction of homogeneous, familiar matter is a necessary phase in a process
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The editors of this issue offer the following annotated bibliography as a modest sampler-far from exhaustive-of work that may be of special interest to those wishing to investigate the relations between surrealism and religion, magic, the... more
The editors of this issue offer the following annotated bibliography as a modest sampler-far from exhaustive-of work that may be of special interest to those wishing to investigate the relations between surrealism and religion, magic, the occult, the sacred. This bibliography contains a combination of work by surrealist writers and work by scholars of surrealism and other thinkers who engage surrealism.
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This paper describes and analyzes "sensations of the sacred" stimulated by Yotsuya Simon's surrealist erotic dolls. Synthesizing concepts from religious studies and surrealism, the paper also articulates new categories for the study of... more
This paper describes and analyzes "sensations of the sacred" stimulated by Yotsuya Simon's surrealist erotic dolls. Synthesizing concepts from religious studies and surrealism, the paper also articulates new categories for the study of surrealism and the sacred.
Research Interests: Psychoanalysis, Surrealism, Eroticism, Psychoanalysis and religion, Erotic art, and 10 morePhenomenology of Religion, Psychoanalysis and art, Sensation and Perception, Religious Studies, Dadaism & Surrealism, Dolls, Religion and the Body, Phenomenology of Religions, Silicone sex dolls, and Surrealism and Religion
The guest editors' introduction to a special issue of the Religious Studies Review, "Surrealism ↔ The Sacred."
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Reflections on eros, transgression, and pedagogy with Bataille and bell hooks.
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A formulation of the task of "anal surrealism" through a political critique of Trumpist authoritarianism.
Research Interests: Sociology of Religion, Psychoanalysis, Philosophy Of Religion, Religion and Politics, Sovereignty, and 15 moreSurrealism, Fascism, Sigmund Freud, Georges Bataille, Politics and Religion, Psychoanalysis and religion, André Breton, Ambivalence, Heterology (Bataille), Authority, Religion and Power, Extremity and Excess, Donald Trump, Georges Bataille and Religion, and anuses
A meditation on writing and pain, drawing upon Georges Bataille's "mythical anthropology." Contains an original drawing by Ryan Pfeiffer and Rebecca Walz (Pfeiffer+Walz).
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This text is an experiment in ‘mythological anthropology’ (Georges Bataille). Through a parody of Hegelian dialectic in which the moment of ‘synthesis’ is displaced by a delirious ‘prosthesis’, autobiographical and historical elements are... more
This text is an experiment in ‘mythological anthropology’ (Georges Bataille). Through a parody of Hegelian dialectic in which the moment of ‘synthesis’ is displaced by a delirious ‘prosthesis’, autobiographical and historical elements are disfigured in a play of phantasms.
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A short pseudonymous article treating "Unchained Liturgy," an erotic book authored by an individual or collective working under the name "Lord Sunder" and designed by artist Mariano Chavez. The book was featured as part of an installation... more
A short pseudonymous article treating "Unchained Liturgy," an erotic book authored by an individual or collective working under the name "Lord Sunder" and designed by artist Mariano Chavez. The book was featured as part of an installation by Mariano Chavez and Jeremy Biles at the "Why Marriage?" exhibition at the Darst Center, Chicago. The article appears in a special issue of the journal Carceral Notebooks edited by exhibition curators Chuck Thurow and Mia Ruyter.
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A sketch toward a "sensibility of the sacred" with an "anutropic" orientation, set out in participation with the 2019 Theology and Modern Visual Art conference held at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The paper focuses on... more
A sketch toward a "sensibility of the sacred" with an "anutropic" orientation, set out in participation with the 2019 Theology and Modern Visual Art conference held at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The paper focuses on drawing as part of a practice of sacred erotics.
Research Interests: Christianity, Psychoanalysis, Sacrifice (Philosophy), Eroticism, Georges Bataille, and 14 moreDrawing, Psychoanalysis and religion, Philosophy of Love, Religion and Literature, Literature and Religion, Emile Durkheim, Psychoanalysis and art, Seduction, Formless, Christianity and the Arts, Religion and Art, especially visual, Anal eroticism, Mark C Taylor, and Polymorphous Perversity
Paper presented as part of the annual "Religions of Karl Ove Knausgaard" symposium, Indiana University, 2018.
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Paper presented at the 9th annual meeting of the Society for Psychoanalysis and Philosophy, November 10, 2016, New York City
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Paper presented at Indiana University, sponsored by the Department of Religion, 2016
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Contribution to the second "Religions of Karl Ove Knausgaard" conference at Columbia University, January 2017.
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Considerations of elements of intoxication in Karl Ove Knausgaard's My Struggle. A contribution to the "Religion of Karl Ove Knausgaard" symposium at Columbia University, January 2015.
Research Interests: William James, Mysticism, Everyday Life Studies, Friedrich Nietzsche, Sacred (Religion), and 11 moreSociology of Everyday Life, Religious Experience, Dionysius the Areopagite, Everyday Life, Dionysus, Alcohol, Intoxication, Extremity and Excess, Drunkenness, Karl Ove Knausgård, and Everyday Mysticism
A transgeneric document (theoretical and philosophical reflections, drawings, meditations, fictions, and free associations) on sovereignty, mystical experience, mythological anthropology, dreams, art, desire, psychoanalysis, death, love,... more
A transgeneric document (theoretical and philosophical reflections, drawings, meditations, fictions, and free associations) on sovereignty, mystical experience, mythological anthropology, dreams, art, desire, psychoanalysis, death, love, eroticism, and the Acéphale
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An adumbration of practical and theoretical heterology of drawing emerging from self-analysis and the thought of Georges Bataille.
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This paper dreams of new publishing possibilities in the field of religious studies through a critique of Jonathan Z. Smith’s theory of religion. Smith has argued that Paul Tillich is the “unacknowledged theoretician” of the American... more
This paper dreams of new publishing possibilities in the field of religious studies through a critique of Jonathan Z. Smith’s theory of religion. Smith has argued that Paul Tillich is the “unacknowledged theoretician” of the American Academy of Religion, responsible for the rise of “dialogic fields” like Religion, Literature, and the Arts. But whereas Smith sees the dialogic fields as a problem, this paper embraces their possibilities, critiquing Smith’s “rationalist bias.” The failure of Smith’s theory of sacrifice is here addressed by recourse to Georges Bataille, whose writings also suggest new modes of imagining and writing about religion.
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Paper offered at the Boundaries of Consciousness conference, sponsored by the Breuninger Foundation of Germany -- a symposium on the paranormal in Ontario, Canada (2010)
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Paper presented at symposium on networks in contemporary art, Caltech, 2011
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Research Interests: Ritual, Transformation, Reality television, Religion and Technology, Jacques Lacan, and 10 moreReligion, Media, and Culture, Body Image, Psychoanalysis and religion, Perfectionism, Cosmetic Surgery as Art, Religion and Popular Culture, Reality TV, Body Modification, The Mirror Stage, and Religion and the Body
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This issue, which I guest edited, comprises artistic and scholarly engagements with the work of Georges Bataille, with particular focus on Bataille's concept of the sacred and the importance of his work in the context of religious studies.
Research Interests: Queer Studies, Surrealism, Pedagogy, Georges Bataille, Collage, and 11 moreBlack Studies, Paleolithic Art, Transgression, Theories of Religion, Anti-Colonialism, Theories and Methods in the Study of Religion, Anthropology of Religion, Theories of the Sacred, Acéphale, Performance/live Art, and Ron Athey
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A selection of graphite drawings on paper and a text adumbrating the concept and practice of "grottography" in the context of "anal surrealism."
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Critique of Trumpist authoritarianism.
Research Interests: Religion, Religion and Politics, Sovereignty, Law and Religion, Sigmund Freud, and 12 moreGiorgio Agamben, Sacred (Religion), Georges Bataille, Politics and Religion, Fear of Crime, Carl Schmitt, State of Emergency, State of exception, Ritual Purity, Pollution and Purity, Group Psychology, and Donald Trump
A version of this article appeared in Religion Dispatches (May 20, 2016) under the title "Captain America: Civil Religion (And Why Donald Trump Thinks He's Batman)." The article reveals the religious and political dimensions of Marvel's... more
A version of this article appeared in Religion Dispatches (May 20, 2016) under the title "Captain America: Civil Religion (And Why Donald Trump Thinks He's Batman)." The article reveals the religious and political dimensions of Marvel's "Captain America: Civil War." http://religiondispatches.org/captain-america-civil-religion-and-why-donald-trump-thinks-hes-batman/
Research Interests: American Politics, Popular Culture, Comic Book Studies, Religion, Media, and Culture, Religion and Popular Culture, and 16 moreAmerican Comic Books and Social Commentary, Religion and Media, Superheroes, Religion and Culture, Comic books, Marvel Comics, Intersection of Philosophy, Religion, Politics and Popular Culture, Grant Morrison, Superman, Religion and Comics, Presidential Politics, Religion and literature, film, media, and popular culture; global Christianity; postcolonial and cultural theory, Bruce Lincoln, Captain America, Jeffrey J. Kripal, and Donald Trump
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Research Interests: Poetry and William Blake
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This text accompanied an exhibition of selections from the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University. The exhibition was curated by Jeremy Biles, Ryan Pfeiffer, and Rebecca Walz and ran in conjunction with the Noli Me Tangere project with... more
This text accompanied an exhibition of selections from the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University. The exhibition was curated by Jeremy Biles, Ryan Pfeiffer, and Rebecca Walz and ran in conjunction with the Noli Me Tangere project with the Center for Religion and the Human at Indiana University.
https://touchmenot.indiana.edu/
https://touchmenot.indiana.edu/
Research Interests: Queer Studies, Religion and Sexuality, Eroticism, Drawing, Erotic art, and 11 morePrints and Drawings, Indiana University, Sexuality and Religion, Alfred Kinsey, Religion, Gender and Sexuality, Sexual Desire, Erotic Art History, Kinsey Institute, Supplications, Religion and Eroticism, and The Kinsey Institute
Text for the forthcoming mixtape "Icarus Falling" by Chicago-based DJ and artist Justin Long for the LIES label.
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This short text will be published in a booklet accompanying a forthcoming album from Justin Long, released by L.I.E.S. Records (https://liesrecords.com/). The album will be published in cassette form. The booklet will include photographs... more
This short text will be published in a booklet accompanying a forthcoming album from Justin Long, released by L.I.E.S. Records (https://liesrecords.com/). The album will be published in cassette form. The booklet will include photographs of dead birds by Justin Long.
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Draft of catalog contribution for the exhibition "Nandi" at the Condo Association, Chicago, September 2017, curated by Dominique Knowles. Curatorial statement: The show concerns Kamadhenu, the sacred cow in Hinduism who shall not shed... more
Draft of catalog contribution for the exhibition "Nandi" at the Condo Association, Chicago, September 2017, curated by Dominique Knowles.
Curatorial statement: The show concerns Kamadhenu, the sacred cow in Hinduism who shall not shed blood, but be sustained with milk; the brutality of The Eucharist; the sexuality of Christ giving birth to his humanity; Madonna and Child revealing Christ’s mortality; vulnerability in Noli me Tangere; St. Sebastian’s homoeroticism; animality in Greek mythology; the autonomy of the queer body; a capacity for transformation and a devotion to an expanding language of embodiment. Perhaps what is at stake is a loss of empathy. Especially since there are pluralities, complexities and elasticities regarding various bodies.
Participating artists:
Parker Bright
Elijah Burgher
James Kerley
Rohan Khanna
Michael Madrigali
Anwar Mahdi
Ignacio María Manrique
Kaveri Raina
Pfeiffer + Walz
Caleb Yono
Curatorial statement: The show concerns Kamadhenu, the sacred cow in Hinduism who shall not shed blood, but be sustained with milk; the brutality of The Eucharist; the sexuality of Christ giving birth to his humanity; Madonna and Child revealing Christ’s mortality; vulnerability in Noli me Tangere; St. Sebastian’s homoeroticism; animality in Greek mythology; the autonomy of the queer body; a capacity for transformation and a devotion to an expanding language of embodiment. Perhaps what is at stake is a loss of empathy. Especially since there are pluralities, complexities and elasticities regarding various bodies.
Participating artists:
Parker Bright
Elijah Burgher
James Kerley
Rohan Khanna
Michael Madrigali
Anwar Mahdi
Ignacio María Manrique
Kaveri Raina
Pfeiffer + Walz
Caleb Yono
Research Interests: Religion and Politics, Sovereignty, Sacred (Religion), Georges Bataille, Emile Durkheim, and 8 morePsychoanalysis and art, Sacred Art, Sacred Space, Religion and Art, Sanskrit Studies, Sanskrit Aesthetics, Indian Philosophy, Indian Music, Dance and Arts, Art and Religion, The school of art institute of chicago, Free Association, and G. Bataille); Philosophy of Art (G. Didi Huberman
Essay for the "Fruiting Bodies" exhibition at Iceberg Projects, Chicago.
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This essay will be part of a takeaway publication in conjunction with an exhibition of Rebecca Walz + Ryan Pfeiffer's work entitled "Pantheon" at the Davis Gallery, Hobart and William Smith Colleges.
Research Interests: Mythology, Contemporary Art, History of Religions, Eroticism, Drawing, and 9 morePrints and Drawings, Ancient Greek Mythology, Contemporary Drawing, Art and Religion, The school of art institute of chicago, Cave art, Paleolithic Cave Painting, Religion and the Arts, and Religion and Contemporary Art
These post cards are my contribution to a publication created in conjunction with the exhibition "Our Lovely Secret Wreck," curated by Brian Leahy at Hume Chicago. The show comprises work by Brian Leahy, Margaux Crump, and J. Michael... more
These post cards are my contribution to a publication created in conjunction with the exhibition "Our Lovely Secret Wreck," curated by Brian Leahy at Hume Chicago. The show comprises work by Brian Leahy, Margaux Crump, and J. Michael Ford. The post cards consist of hand-drawn and collage images incorporating Lacan's diagrams as decorative motifs on one side, and love letters to the artists on the other.
Research Interests: Contemporary Art, Painting, Jacques Lacan, Desire, Drawing, and 8 morePsychoanalysis and art, Lacanian psychoanalysis, Philosophy of art, contemporary art theory, psychoanalysis and art, The school of art institute of chicago, Philosophy of Desire, Sexual Desire, Chris Kraus, and psychoanalyis and desire
Contribution to catalog for "Chthonic Void," exhibition of artist Christine Tarkowski's work. This file is a mock-up of the final publication; the word "frangible" appears in black in the final version of the text. Design by Jason... more
Contribution to catalog for "Chthonic Void," exhibition of artist Christine Tarkowski's work. This file is a mock-up of the final publication; the word "frangible" appears in black in the final version of the text. Design by Jason Pickleman, JNL Graphic Design. Photos by Joshi Radin.
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This is the final version of a publication on the occasion of the exhibition "Robert Buck" at Iceberg Proejcts, Chicago. The document contains my textual intervention into "The Story of Robert Buck," by artist Robert Buck. My... more
This is the final version of a publication on the occasion of the exhibition "Robert Buck" at Iceberg Proejcts, Chicago. The document contains my textual intervention into "The Story of Robert Buck," by artist Robert Buck. My interventions appear in red; Buck's text is in black.
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On the occasion of the exhibition "Personal Geographies." Work by Amy Honchell.
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Contribution to the Occult Humanities Conference, New York City, October 2017. In this paper, I develop an autobiographically generated account of drawing as part of an occult practice of the “left” (or sinister) sacred. Marshalling... more
Contribution to the Occult Humanities Conference, New York City, October 2017.
In this paper, I develop an autobiographically generated account of drawing as part of an occult practice of the “left” (or sinister) sacred. Marshalling analytic insights from psychoanalysis, religious studies, and the work of Georges Bataille, and with attention to the surrealists’ interest in magic, this account engages the occult as a means for understanding both the medium and the activity of drawing. Revealing occulted elements of a personal practice of drawing—modalities of hiddenness including secrecy, seduction, shame, excrementality, transgression, and eroticism—this paper adumbrates a “heterology” of drawing that envisions drawing as an ambiguous and ambivalent practice eliciting and communicating an experience of the sinister side of the sacred.
In this paper, I develop an autobiographically generated account of drawing as part of an occult practice of the “left” (or sinister) sacred. Marshalling analytic insights from psychoanalysis, religious studies, and the work of Georges Bataille, and with attention to the surrealists’ interest in magic, this account engages the occult as a means for understanding both the medium and the activity of drawing. Revealing occulted elements of a personal practice of drawing—modalities of hiddenness including secrecy, seduction, shame, excrementality, transgression, and eroticism—this paper adumbrates a “heterology” of drawing that envisions drawing as an ambiguous and ambivalent practice eliciting and communicating an experience of the sinister side of the sacred.
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Public talk as part of the Philosophy of Religion Workshop at the University of Chicago Divinity School. This file contains the slide presentation that accompanied the talk.
Research Interests: Psychoanalysis, Philosophy Of Religion, Surrealism, Continental Philosophy of Religion (Philosophy), Georges Bataille, and 12 morePsychoanalysis and religion, Hans Bellmer, Psychotherapy and religion, Acéphale, Headless, Solar Anus, Georges Bataille and Religion, André Masson, Georges Bataille and psychoanalysis, Psychoanalysis and Sacrifice, Psychoanalysis and Surrealism, and Hugo, Man of a Thousand Faces
Presentation delivered to Fellows at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, 2014. This presentation raised the question of the possibility of a psychoanalytic (counter-)therapeutic practice informed by the thought of Georges Bataille.
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Delineating a heterological approach to drawing.
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Research Interests: Art History, Georges Bataille, Sacrifice, Rosalind Krauss, Contemporary art practice and notions of ruin/incompleteness Installation art practice Ephemeral art Cultures of display Relational aesthetics ‘Formlessness’ Critiques of the Picturesque, and 2 moreArt and Religion and G. Bataille); Philosophy of Art (G. Didi Huberman
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review article treating two books by Mark C. Taylor: Refiguring the Spiritual and Rewiring the Real.
Research Interests: Religion, Philosophy Of Religion, Literature, Contemporary Art, Literary Criticism, and 22 moreContinental Philosophy, Continental Philosophy of Religion (Philosophy), Joseph Beuys, Religion, Media, and Culture, Theology and Culture, Religion and Literature, Literature and Religion, Don DeLillo, Religion and Popular Culture, Religion and Culture, William Gaddis, Mark Z Danielewski, Matthew Barney, Richard Powers, Art and Religion, Theology and philosophy, Religion and Poetry, James Turrell, Relations Between Religion Poetry and Philosophy, Religion and Contemporary Art, Mark C Taylor, and Continental Philosophy and Aesthetics
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Review of David Lynch, TWIN PEAKS: THE RETURN
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Review of Chester Brown, MARY WEPT OVER THE FEET OF JESUS: PROSTITUTION AND RELIGIOUS OBEDIENCE IN THE BIBLE
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Review of Jason Aaron, THE GODDAMNED: BOOK ONE—BEFORE THE FLOOD
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Review of Unica Zurn's TRUMPETS OF JERICHO
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Review of THE COMPLETE STORIES OF LEONORA CARRINGTON and DOWN BELOW
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Review of the book "Mad Like Artaud," by Sylvere Lotringer
Research Interests: Antonin Artaud, Psychoanalysis and religion, Madness and Literature, Lacanian psychoanalysis, Madness, and 9 moreMadness, Anti-Psychiatry, Art and Religion, Theater of Cruelty, A. Artaud, Madness and Religion, Religion and the Arts, Artaud, Artaud and aesthetic, and To Be Done with the Judgment of God
Review of the book "Pleading in the Blood: The Art and Performances of Ron Athey," ed. Dominic Johnson
Research Interests: Performing Arts, Performance Studies, Contemporary Art, Religion and Sexuality, Ritual, and 14 morePerformance Art, The Abject Body, Abjection, Pentecostalism, Intersection of Art, Performance, Ritual and Worship, Gender and religion, Religious Identity, Art and Religion, Art and Ritual, Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Religion and the Arts, Religion and Contemporary Art, Ron Athey, and Gifts of the Spirit
Review of the book "The Professor in the Cage," by Jonathan Gottschall
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Review of the novel Consumed, by David Cronenberg
Research Interests: Posthumanism, Religion and Film, Religion and Technology, Cultural Entomology, Religion and Literature, and 9 moreLiterature and Religion, Religion and Popular Culture, Transhumanism/Posthumanism, David Cronenberg, Technotheology, Religious Cults, Posthumanism and Transhumanism, Surgery in Fiction, and Religion and Transhumanism
Review of the novel The Childhood of Jesus, by J. M. Coetzee
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Review of the movie The Neon Demon.
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Review of the movie "Moebius," dir. Kim Ki-Duk
Research Interests: Buddhism, Religion and Film, Desire, Religion and Popular Culture, Castration, and 5 moreTransgressive use of religious iconography, Religion and literature, film, media, and popular culture; global Christianity; postcolonial and cultural theory, Sexual Desire, Religion and the Movies, and Film and Religion
Review of the movie "Forbidden Room," dir. Guy Maddin
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Review of the movie "Ex Machina," dir. Alex Garland
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Review of the movie "Goodbye to Language," dir. Jean-Luc Godard
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This file is a portion of chapbook created in conjunction with a reading at M. LeBlanc Gallery, Chicago. The reading was part of the Caliope series, created by Ali Pinkney and Marie Ségolène. The chapbook contains the short story "Castle"... more
This file is a portion of chapbook created in conjunction with a reading at M. LeBlanc Gallery, Chicago. The reading was part of the Caliope series, created by Ali Pinkney and Marie Ségolène. The chapbook contains the short story "Castle" from my ongoing "Morning Stories" series, from which I read five pieces at the event.
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Artists book designed by Mariano Chavez. Text by Lord Sunder.
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Frontward Tilt assembles a group of four artists whose work incites precarity and addresses “the tilt” as both a formal strategy and disruptive symbolic operation. The work of these four artists examines the tilt and its constellation of... more
Frontward Tilt assembles a group of four artists whose work incites precarity and addresses “the tilt” as both a formal strategy and disruptive symbolic operation. The work of these four artists examines the tilt and its constellation of related terms (lunge, tumble, slip, pitch, slant, lean…) as a function of fractured or collapsed pictorial space and dimensional ambiguity. A shifting body of interconnected references pervades the work and serves this end: voyeur, creeper, spy; bull, bullgod and matador; The Mirror of Tauromachy and the Mademoiselle V. Inspired by a Bataillean meditation on Manet’s “Fish (Still Life)” (1864), Frontward Tilt embraces historically displaced imagery via ulterior reads and freeassociations, and indulges lowness both as a vantage and a practice.
Ramsey Alderson lives and works in Chicago. He has recently had two solo shows at Front Room and DoMus in Chicago. He holds a BFA from the School of The Art Institute of Chicago.
Jeremy Biles, PhD, resides in Chicago, where he teaches on religion, philosophy, and art at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago. He is the author of the book Ecce Monstrum: Georges Bataille and the Sacrifice of Form (Fordham University Press, 2007).
Ryan M Pfeiffer + Rebecca Walz are collaborators that live and work in Chicago. Drawing from their research into prehistoric & ancient art, historical erotica, and esoteric traditions, their works synthesize concerns about sex, death, myth, transformation, and alchemy. They view the act of collaboration as the dissolution of individual identities and union of oppositions as a new, harmonized whole.
Collin Pressler is a writer and arts organizer living and working in Chicago. He currently serves as Curator at The International Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood, and previously served as Exhibitions Manager at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago.
Ramsey Alderson lives and works in Chicago. He has recently had two solo shows at Front Room and DoMus in Chicago. He holds a BFA from the School of The Art Institute of Chicago.
Jeremy Biles, PhD, resides in Chicago, where he teaches on religion, philosophy, and art at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago. He is the author of the book Ecce Monstrum: Georges Bataille and the Sacrifice of Form (Fordham University Press, 2007).
Ryan M Pfeiffer + Rebecca Walz are collaborators that live and work in Chicago. Drawing from their research into prehistoric & ancient art, historical erotica, and esoteric traditions, their works synthesize concerns about sex, death, myth, transformation, and alchemy. They view the act of collaboration as the dissolution of individual identities and union of oppositions as a new, harmonized whole.
Collin Pressler is a writer and arts organizer living and working in Chicago. He currently serves as Curator at The International Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood, and previously served as Exhibitions Manager at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago.
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A group exhibition featuring the work of Claire Arctander, Jeremy Biles, Ben Fain, Yasi Ghanbari, Kelly Lloyd, Steve Reinke and Alice Tippit.
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NOTE on trigger warnings and course subject matter: The title of this course is " Sex, Death, and Philosophy. " Students should be prepared to discuss any and all manner of topics that may arise in relation to sex and death (and... more
NOTE on trigger warnings and course subject matter: The title of this course is " Sex, Death, and Philosophy. " Students should be prepared to discuss any and all manner of topics that may arise in relation to sex and death (and philosophy), including such matters as trauma, sexual " perversions, " eroticism, excrement, desire, incest, violence, and mortality. Texts—written, visual, acoustic—may contain graphic or violent words/images. Rather than offering individual trigger warnings for every text that may contain potentially disturbing material, the instructor is here announcing that potentially disturbing material may be found in many, or any, class texts; and potentially disturbing material may arise in many, or any, class discussions. The instructor pledges to do his utmost to produce and maintain an attitude conducive to a classroom culture of sensitivity and respect. Students must also take responsibility for guaranteeing this classroom culture of sensitivity and respect. This responsibility extends to students letting the instructor know, whether in private or in class, if they foresee particular topics to be potentially triggering. If a student foresees the major topics of discussion announced in the course title—sex and death—to be triggering in themselves, they may wish to consider whether they should remain enrolled in this class. Embracing the core values of SAIC, we will be actively encouraging intellectual and imaginative risks in discussion, reading, and writing. We will dedicate ourselves to the free and open exchange of ideas, unrestricted thinking, and rigorous critical inquiry. All points of view are welcome in this class; the objective is to express and discuss varying points of view and a wide range of subject matter with an attitude that combines openness, criticality, and respect.
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One entry in an ongoing and open-ended collaboration with artist Judith Brotman. A sound component was created with GALACTAGOGUE.
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Written in the wake of the solar eclipse of August 2017.
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Text-image associations prepared in the wake of a meeting on the theme of "A/céphalic Discontents," co-curated by Das Unbehagen and the Surrealism and Psychoanalysis Research Group of the Society for Psychoanalytic Inquiry. The event took... more
Text-image associations prepared in the wake of a meeting on the theme of "A/céphalic Discontents," co-curated by Das Unbehagen and the Surrealism and Psychoanalysis Research Group of the Society for Psychoanalytic Inquiry. The event took place at Fidget Space, in Philadelphia, PA.
Research Interests: Psychoanalysis, Surrealism, Politics, Fascism, Hysteria, and 24 moreSacrifice (Philosophy), Georges Bataille, Psychoanalysis and religion, Mythologies, Sacrifice (Anthropology Of Religion), Money, Psychoanalysis and Politics, Psychoanalysis and art, Fetishism, Castration, Vesuvius, Public Expenditures, Psychoanalysis and culture, Bataille, Anarchitecture, Monuments, Sun, Bald eagles, Free Association, Gordon Matta- Clark, Icarus, Pineal Gland (human), Acéphale, and Donald Trump
Article on the Marquis de Sade forthcoming in the Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (2021).
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Draft of an article on the Bible and/as material culture forthcoming in the Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (2020).
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Among the many obscure sects of sexual fetishism, few remain as perplexing as that of the “crush freaks,” who are aroused by the sight of an insect exploded beneath a human foot. Moving beyond the glib discussions of those entomologists... more
Among the many obscure sects of sexual fetishism, few remain as perplexing as that of the “crush freaks,” who are aroused by the sight of an insect exploded beneath a human foot. Moving beyond the glib discussions of those entomologists and sexologists who classify this fetish as a subset of foot worship and/or macrophilia, I propose an analysis of the crush freaks through the writings of French thinker Georges Bataille. Employing Bataille’s notions of sacrificial eroticism and mysticism to approach the religio-sexual dimensions of crush freakism, I argue that these practices are best understood as ambivalent manifestations of technophilia (sexual arousal associated with machinery). More specifically, crush freakism, I submit, devolves on a violent literalization of the analogies between insects and machines.
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American Sanctuary, Understanding Sacred Spaces. Edited by Louis P. Nelson. (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. 2006. Pp. xiv, 280. $65.00 hardbound; $24.95 paperback.) This fascinating collection of essays seeks... more
American Sanctuary, Understanding Sacred Spaces. Edited by Louis P. Nelson. (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. 2006. Pp. xiv, 280. $65.00 hardbound; $24.95 paperback.) This fascinating collection of essays seeks bravely to "redefine the study of American sacred space." Its articles consciously foreground the "multifarious," tracking the most varied of sacral allusions in this country's contemporary environment. Collectively they illustrate how sacred space, while perhaps undergoing an atomization due to our nation's increasingly diverse character, has far from lost its relevance to the average citizen. The case studies are broadening and often riveting. As the volume argues, American sacred practices have expanded well beyond traditional "places of worship" and "institutionally sanctioned ritual." Thus our analytical techniques must cast a "wide net" as well. The editor shapes this volume around the "everyday beliefs and practices of the laity," seeking to expand beyond typical definitions of the sacred such as Eliade's ontological marking of a center or the Platonic Tradition's conflation of beauty with the holy. The volume explores numerous examples that under those definitions might be considered too lightly inscribed, too sociopolitical, too unstable, or too contested to qualify traditionally as sacred space. Most intriguing about this volume is its focus on sacred space, in contrast to a more typical focus on sacred buildings. Several of the volume's most fascinating essays explore how various religious markers have been used to delimit and identify sacred precincts with little or no dependence upon, or reference to, the design of an all-encompassing, physically built surround. The Hebrew traditions of the eruv (amalgamating many dweUings into a single communal "domain" for ritual purposes) and the mezuzah (an exterior doorpost scroU indicating Jewish observance within the home) show communities or families subtly tracing sacred lines or gateways within otherwise undifferentiated, secular space. Contemporary expressions are contrasted with historical cases, showing how modern life can simultaneously empower and erode such non-brick-and-mortar devices. Other articles explore evocations of the sacred in wide-open spaces such as in New York's Central Park, traditionally African-American yard show displays, and cemeteries. An essay on our National Mail in Washington explores how memorials interweave the sacred with messages of politics and power and thus sociaily energize vast surrounding spaces in unstable but nonetheless potent ways. The breadth of faiths studied is another strength. …