Tag Archives: body

Silicone Flesh (Anish Kapoor)

Posted on June 21, 2016 by zjb

From a distance, these new works by Anish Kapoor are gross and only so-so. But up close, they are bright, turbulent and beautiful. Made out of painted silicone and wax to simulate flesh and fat.

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Metamorphoses & Trans-Human Becomings (Rosi Braidotti)

Posted on January 29, 2016 by zjb

Reading Rosi Braidotti sometimes feels like reading comic books, or science-fiction. Metamorphoses: Towards a Materialist Theory of Becoming is no exception.  The book is like a dare. Throughout the course of western culture and into our own popular culture, the … Continue reading →

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Body Viscus Goes Inside Canopic Jars (Ancient Egypt, Middle Kingdom)

Posted on January 26, 2016 by zjb

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, these canopic jars “were made to contain the four internal organs removed during the mummification process (stomach, liver, intestines, lungs). Earlier examples had flat or domed lids, but human-headed lids were introduced by … Continue reading →

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Talmud? Feminism? Materialism? Affect?  (Talk at University of Toronto)

Posted on January 19, 2016 by zjb

I’m making baby steps, so just in case I ended up botching it, I didn’t announce here at the blog or on FB this talk at the Anne Tannebaum Centre for Jewish Studies University of Toronto with the semi-okay title … Continue reading →

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Shrouded Royal Figure, Standing (Ancient Egypt, Middle Kingdom)

Posted on January 18, 2016 by zjb

I can’t call this one any better than the description of this “fully alive body”  online here at the Met.  I would only mention the modest power with which the now headless sandstone figure holds itself. I would also say something about the … Continue reading →

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Matter-Nature-Bodies (Material Feminisms)

Posted on January 12, 2016 by zjb

Edited by Stacy Alaimo and Susan Hekman and published in 2008, Material Feminisms reads something like a group manifesto. Contributors include Alaimo and Heckman, along with Karen Barad, Claire Colebrook, Elisabeth Grosz, Donna Haraway, and others. With philosophical roots in … Continue reading →

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Body Without Organs (Eva Hesse)

Posted on January 7, 2016 by zjb

Reading up on bodies, the wall description for this large untitled sculpture by Eva Hesse says more about it than I could ever hope to do about knotting and twisting,  suspension and mutation, dipping and dripping. These types of work … Continue reading →

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Aizen myôô, the Wisdom King of Passion (Joined Wood Construction)

Posted on January 1, 2016 by zjb

Transforming physical lust into spiritual awakening, Aizen myôô, the Wisdom King of Passion is coarse and fearsome. The trick would be to identify that precise moment in time when the one is turned into the other. According to his Wikipedia … Continue reading →

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Remembering Michael Wyschogrod (z”l) & The Body of Faith

Posted on December 20, 2015 by zjb

Saddened by the recent passing of Michael Wyschogod. I knew him only briefly, getting to meet him during my year teaching at Rice. I saw him frequently at the local Habad. I remember the first time I read The Body of … Continue reading →

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God or Nature and Vibrant Matter (Jane Bennett)

Posted on October 28, 2015 by zjb

Against the classical notion that matter is inert and passive, the ideas are familiar and will come as no surprise to any casual reader of popular science. For all that, Jane Bennett’s Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things (2010) represents … Continue reading →

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