Robert Thomas Kilroy | Limerick School of Art & Design (original) (raw)

Books by Robert Thomas Kilroy

2017 marks the centenary of an artwork judged to be the single most influential of the twentieth ... more 2017 marks the centenary of an artwork judged to be the single most influential of the twentieth century: Marcel Duchamp’s famous “readymade” entitled Fountain. The final verdict on Fountain has been widely accepted, despite the fact that the circumstances surrounding “Mr. Richard Mutt” have never resembled an open-and-shut case. On the contrary, since Fountain’s appearance in 1917, when it was rejected as “a plain piece of plumbing” only to be subsequently celebrated as a work of conceptual art, numerous questions remain unanswered, several facts remain unexplained.
Now, one hundred years later, Robert Kilroy attempts to answer these questions by examining the evidence with fresh eyes. Central to the investigation is the primary witness – Duchamp himself – whose statements are forensically analyzed. The facts themselves are interrogated using the methodology of a detective: precisely speaking, an art historical approach with a critical edge sharpened by a new interpretation of psychoanalytic theory.
In weaving an alternative narrative, Kilroy shows us that, not only has Fountain been fundamentally misunderstood, this very misunderstanding is central to the work’s significance. The final verdict, he argues, was strategically stage-managed by Duchamp in order to expose the apparatus underpinning Fountain’s reception, what he terms “The Creative Act.” By suggesting that a specific aesthetic “crime” has gone unnoticed, Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain: One Hundred Years Later asks the reader to radically reassess his/her precise contribution to “the creation of art.” This urgent, if somewhat troubling question, could have far-reaching implications for the field of scholarship, the course of contemporary art and the discipline of Art history.

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Journal Papers by Robert Thomas Kilroy

In the updated preface to the 2008 edition of his seminal work The Sublime Object of Ideology , S... more In the updated preface to the 2008 edition of his seminal work The Sublime Object of Ideology , Slavoj Žižek writes that “when a discipline is in crisis, attempts are made to change or supplement its theses within the terms of its basic framework – a procedure one might call ‘Ptolemization’”. The alternative, he claims, is a “true ‘Copernican’ revolution” which takes place “when, instead of just adding complications and changing minor premises, the basic framework itself undergoes a transformation” (Žižek 2008: vii). In light of these remarks, the central question posed in this paper is as follows: how might Žižek’s distinction between a Ptomelization and Copernican revolution be applied to the field of Žižek Studies today? How, in other words, might we seek to re-evaluate Žižek’s work in a way that includes the mechanisms of evaluation as part of the observed phenomena? The working hypothesis is that, as Žižekians, we must reassert the fundamental rule of psychoanalysis as articul...

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In order to determine why Courbet was cited as an influence for Etant donnes, the author radicall... more In order to determine why Courbet was cited as an influence for Etant donnes, the author radically reinterprets Duchamp’s statements on the subject. This leads to a complete reassessment of the supposed anti-retinal/conceptual interpretation of Duchamp’s oeuvre. To pursue this line of enquiry Duchamp’s perplexing decision to quote the poet T.S. Eliot is fully explored. It is argued that Eliot provides a precise description of the phenomenon addressed in the previous chapters: the art historical response to the dilemma presented by Fountain. The conclusion drawn is that Duchamp used Eliot to highlight the paradoxical logic of his work’s reception and, in turn, the mechanism underpinning this reception. This justifies the use of a Lacanian-Žižekian model as the strongest interpretative tool available to art historians.

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Sillages critiques, 2019

This article contributes to the ongoing debate about the paradigmatic shift in Visual Culture by ... more This article contributes to the ongoing debate about the paradigmatic shift in Visual Culture by outlining the theoretical parameters of a new approach to the study of text/image relations. In doing so it also builds on the most recent scholarship in Beckett Studies by offering a new theoretical framework for interpreting Beckett’s work. First, the word/image problematic is re-conceptualized through reference to the writings of Slavoj Žižek. On the basis of a “word/image parallax”, a new iconological approach is elucidated by adapting art historical tools in line with psychoanalytic theory. The application of this model as a tool for textual analysis is then epistemologically justified from within the domain of literary criticism. In developing this point, I aim to illuminate the parallax logic of both Beckett’s work and the critical reaction it provokes in order to propose a new direction in scholarship. The broader argument is that the field of Beckett Studies allows for a new type of disciplinary encounter – what I call an “infra-disciplinary” short-circuit – to take place between art history and literary criticism.

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International Journal of Žižek Studies, 2019

In recent years, criticism of Slavoj Žižek has intensified at a frantic pace, to the extent that ... more In recent years, criticism of Slavoj Žižek has intensified at a frantic pace, to the extent that he has all but been erased from the public sphere. Alongside his exclusion from dominant media-platforms such as The Guardian and the The New York Times , the denunciation of his work by the academic community has reached an excessive level, with thinkers such as Noam Chomsky seeking to undermine the empirical validity of his thought in a surprisingly personalized manner

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Routledge eBooks, Jun 30, 2023

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L'Esprit Créateur, 2017

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Modern Language Notes, Sep 1, 2022

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Lacunae. APPI International Journal for Lacanian Psychoanalysis, 2020

Broadly speaking, this paper sets out to answer the two central questions raised by Dany Nobus at... more Broadly speaking, this paper sets out to answer the two central questions raised by Dany Nobus at the Freud Lacan institute (FLi) pandemic seminar, "Psychoanalytic Practice in Technological Space?" (May 27, 2020): How does the image of the analyst develop in computer-mediated technology? And what happens when the analyst disappears from the physical space and is replaced by the more tangible presence of the screen? Using an inventive expansion of the clinical technique, based on reading the Freudian method through the lens of Slavoj Žižek's dialectical interpretation of Lacanian theory, I argue that COVID-19 is, in psychoanalytic-epidemiological terms, a symptom of a more insidious shadow pandemic: a screen contagion operating in the background of the current public health crisis. Specifically, this paper argues that the encroachment of digital technology and social media into our lives during COVID-19 marks the institution of new symbolic order through a fetishistic inversion that gives rise to a new form of (digitalised) subjectivity.

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Sillages critiques. 27. 'L'Avoir lieu.' Sous la direction de Guillaume Fourcade et Kerry-Jane Wallart, 2019

Revue électronique à comité de lecture répertoriée au DOAJ et rattachée à l'Unité de recherche VA... more Revue électronique à comité de lecture répertoriée au DOAJ et rattachée à l'Unité de recherche VALE : Voix Anglophones, Littérature et Esthétique (E.D. IV, Faculté des Lettres, Sorbonne Université).://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/

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The International Journal of Žižek Studies. ‘What Went Wrong With Žižek?’ , 2019

"The new intimacy is stranger and stronger… because the author is aware of our presence in his mi... more "The new intimacy is stranger and stronger… because the author is aware of our presence in his minds and of our inevitable judgement on him, just as the reader is aware at every moment that he is expecting our judgement […] I believe that this is a unique and as yet untheorised human relationship: not new certainly, but unnamed, and not subsumed under any of our pronominal categories-not 'I-you', or 'them-us' or 'we', but a peculiar absent presence of an otherness which is neither the big Other nor the crowd of eyes" (Fredric Jameson, 2018).

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L'Esprit Créateur. “Modernité du mythe, à partir de Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe”. Edited by Daniel Brewer and Mária Minich Brewer., 2017

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The International Journal of Žižek Studies, Vol. 10, No 3, 2016. , 2016

In the updated preface to the 2008 edition of his seminal work The Sublime Object of Ideology, Sl... more In the updated preface to the 2008 edition of his seminal work The Sublime Object of Ideology, Slavoj Žižek writes that “when a discipline is in crisis, attempts are made to change or supplement its theses within the terms of its basic framework – a procedure one might call ‘Ptolemization’”. The alternative, he claims, is a “true ‘Copernican’ revolution” which takes place “when, instead of just adding complications and changing minor premises, the basic framework itself undergoes a transformation” (Žižek 2008: vii). In light of these remarks, the central question posed in this paper is as follows: how might Žižek’s distinction between a Ptomelization and Copernican revolution be applied to the field of Žižek Studies today? How, in other words, might we seek to re-evaluate Žižek’s work in a way that includes the mechanisms of evaluation as part of the observed phenomena? The working hypothesis is that, as Žižekians, we must reassert the fundamental rule of psychoanalysis as articulated by Žižek himself: one must remember to include as part of the content of the message communicated, the act of communication itself (Žižek 2008: 21). In short, when it comes to the reception of Žižek’s thought we should remember Žižek’s basic point that “the question to ask is always: is this truly a Copernician revolution, or merely a Ptolemization of the old paradigm?” (Žižek 2008: vii).

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Tout-fait: The Marcel Duchamp Studies Online Journal, 2016, 2016

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Seachange: Art, Communication, Technology, Issue 6, 2016. Nommer/Naming 2015, 2016

This essay considers the question of “naming” by re-examining the works of the artist Marcel Duch... more This essay considers the question of “naming” by re-examining the works of the artist Marcel Duchamp on the basis of the conceptual apparatus developed by the Lacanian psychoanalyst and philosopher Slavoj Žižek. For Žižek, naming is understood in terms of its broader social-symbolic texture as a ritualistic, meaning making activity that constitutes the zero level of collectivized belief. The act of appellation is thus seen to function as a strategic operation insofar as it is the fundamental bedrock of ideological interpellation—a performative gesture that situates its bearer as “subject.” As I argue, through his use of titles in general and his Fountain-Urinal in particular, Duchamp openly stages this operation within the parameters of the aesthetic field. In doing so, Duchamp’s oeuvre might be said to render visible the fundamental co-ordinates of Žižek’s theoretical framework while at the same time becoming re-habilitated to its psychoanalytic core.

Au travers d’une ré-interrogation de l’oeuvre de Marcel Duchamp, cette
contribution se propose d’explorer l’acte de nommer d’un point de vue
psychanalytique. Selon le philosophe et psychanalyste lacanien Slavoj Žižek, l’acte de nommer est à considérer dans toute sa texture socio-symbolique. C’est un acte ritualisé significatif qui constitue la base de la croyance collective. L’acte de nommer fonctionne donc à la manière d’une opération stratégique car c’est le socle de l’interpellation idéologique – c’est un geste performatif qui
fait de son énonciateur un « sujet ». Ce sont les titres des oeuvres de Duchamp, et en particulier son readymade connu sous le titre de Fontaine, qui rendent visible cette fonction idéologique sur un plan esthétique. Ainsi, Duchamp fait apparaître les coordonnées fondamentales du cadre théorique žižekien et, par un même mouvement, l’oeuvre duchampienne retrouve son essence psychanalytique.

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Lacunae. APPI International Journal for Lacanian Psychoanalysis, Vol. 4, Issue 11, 2015, pp. 165 – 186., 2015

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Lacunae. APPI International Journal for Lacanian Psychoanalysis, Vol. 3, Issue 2, 2014, pp. 40 – 58., Apr 2014

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Sinéad Furlong-Clancy (ed.), The DS Project: Image, Text, Space/Place, 1830-2015, 2015. http://thedsproject.com/ .

At first glance, there would appear to be very little connection between the recent photo of Bara... more At first glance, there would appear to be very little connection between the recent photo of Barack Obama posing for a ‘selfie’ at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela and one of the canonical works of modern art, Edouard Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe. However, upon reflection one might discover a surprising connection: on one side, a celebration of revolutionary politics debased by the obscenities of popular culture; on the other, an adoration of idealized beauty subverted by a revolutionary turn towards modern life. And yet, such a reading would continue to miss the radical, even disturbing, connection between the two images: they are, in fact, two sides of the same phenomenon whose encounter establishes what Slavoj Žižek has termed ‘an impossible short-circuit of levels which, for structural reasons, can never meet’ (Žižek, Interrogating the Real, edited by Rex Butler and Scott Stephens, London: Continuum, 2006, 11).
In this text I wish to argue that the ‘parallax’ perspective required to grasp this impossible relation can be found in the writings of Charles Baudelaire. Baudelaire’s seminal essay The Painter of Modern Life (Le Peintre de la Vie Moderne) has, of course, been consecrated in what Marcel Duchamp calls ‘the primers of art history’ (The Writings of Marcel Duchamp, edited by Michael Sanouillet and Elmer Peterson, New York: Da Capo Press, 1973, 138) as the source of the avant-garde impulse, a ‘call to arms’ for the modern artist. Nevertheless, as a critical discourse it remains, to this day, rather strange and unsettling. Although it draws out the motifs and themes that would become central to the new movement, there are many deadlocks and distortions in the text itself which block a complete and coherent reading.
In my contribution I propose a re-examination of Manet’s image and Baudelaire’s text which reconsiders such gaps and slippages not as obstacles to be overcome but as solutions in themselves, what in the praxis of psychoanalysis is termed a ‘symptom’ and what Žižek redefines through his notion of a ‘parallax’ gap. In doing so, I will attempt to argue that Manet’s painting and Baudelaire’s essay function, on respective visual and verbal levels, as an ‘unmasking gesture of psychoanalysis’ (Žižek, The Sublime Object of Ideology, London: Verso, 2008, 25). Ultimately, by adopting this method I will produce a text of my own which, by developing the central themes of the two images in question, renders explicit their impossible relation.

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Book Chapters by Robert Thomas Kilroy

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Springer eBooks, Dec 5, 2017

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2017 marks the centenary of an artwork judged to be the single most influential of the twentieth ... more 2017 marks the centenary of an artwork judged to be the single most influential of the twentieth century: Marcel Duchamp’s famous “readymade” entitled Fountain. The final verdict on Fountain has been widely accepted, despite the fact that the circumstances surrounding “Mr. Richard Mutt” have never resembled an open-and-shut case. On the contrary, since Fountain’s appearance in 1917, when it was rejected as “a plain piece of plumbing” only to be subsequently celebrated as a work of conceptual art, numerous questions remain unanswered, several facts remain unexplained.
Now, one hundred years later, Robert Kilroy attempts to answer these questions by examining the evidence with fresh eyes. Central to the investigation is the primary witness – Duchamp himself – whose statements are forensically analyzed. The facts themselves are interrogated using the methodology of a detective: precisely speaking, an art historical approach with a critical edge sharpened by a new interpretation of psychoanalytic theory.
In weaving an alternative narrative, Kilroy shows us that, not only has Fountain been fundamentally misunderstood, this very misunderstanding is central to the work’s significance. The final verdict, he argues, was strategically stage-managed by Duchamp in order to expose the apparatus underpinning Fountain’s reception, what he terms “The Creative Act.” By suggesting that a specific aesthetic “crime” has gone unnoticed, Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain: One Hundred Years Later asks the reader to radically reassess his/her precise contribution to “the creation of art.” This urgent, if somewhat troubling question, could have far-reaching implications for the field of scholarship, the course of contemporary art and the discipline of Art history.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

In the updated preface to the 2008 edition of his seminal work The Sublime Object of Ideology , S... more In the updated preface to the 2008 edition of his seminal work The Sublime Object of Ideology , Slavoj Žižek writes that “when a discipline is in crisis, attempts are made to change or supplement its theses within the terms of its basic framework – a procedure one might call ‘Ptolemization’”. The alternative, he claims, is a “true ‘Copernican’ revolution” which takes place “when, instead of just adding complications and changing minor premises, the basic framework itself undergoes a transformation” (Žižek 2008: vii). In light of these remarks, the central question posed in this paper is as follows: how might Žižek’s distinction between a Ptomelization and Copernican revolution be applied to the field of Žižek Studies today? How, in other words, might we seek to re-evaluate Žižek’s work in a way that includes the mechanisms of evaluation as part of the observed phenomena? The working hypothesis is that, as Žižekians, we must reassert the fundamental rule of psychoanalysis as articul...

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In order to determine why Courbet was cited as an influence for Etant donnes, the author radicall... more In order to determine why Courbet was cited as an influence for Etant donnes, the author radically reinterprets Duchamp’s statements on the subject. This leads to a complete reassessment of the supposed anti-retinal/conceptual interpretation of Duchamp’s oeuvre. To pursue this line of enquiry Duchamp’s perplexing decision to quote the poet T.S. Eliot is fully explored. It is argued that Eliot provides a precise description of the phenomenon addressed in the previous chapters: the art historical response to the dilemma presented by Fountain. The conclusion drawn is that Duchamp used Eliot to highlight the paradoxical logic of his work’s reception and, in turn, the mechanism underpinning this reception. This justifies the use of a Lacanian-Žižekian model as the strongest interpretative tool available to art historians.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Sillages critiques, 2019

This article contributes to the ongoing debate about the paradigmatic shift in Visual Culture by ... more This article contributes to the ongoing debate about the paradigmatic shift in Visual Culture by outlining the theoretical parameters of a new approach to the study of text/image relations. In doing so it also builds on the most recent scholarship in Beckett Studies by offering a new theoretical framework for interpreting Beckett’s work. First, the word/image problematic is re-conceptualized through reference to the writings of Slavoj Žižek. On the basis of a “word/image parallax”, a new iconological approach is elucidated by adapting art historical tools in line with psychoanalytic theory. The application of this model as a tool for textual analysis is then epistemologically justified from within the domain of literary criticism. In developing this point, I aim to illuminate the parallax logic of both Beckett’s work and the critical reaction it provokes in order to propose a new direction in scholarship. The broader argument is that the field of Beckett Studies allows for a new type of disciplinary encounter – what I call an “infra-disciplinary” short-circuit – to take place between art history and literary criticism.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

International Journal of Žižek Studies, 2019

In recent years, criticism of Slavoj Žižek has intensified at a frantic pace, to the extent that ... more In recent years, criticism of Slavoj Žižek has intensified at a frantic pace, to the extent that he has all but been erased from the public sphere. Alongside his exclusion from dominant media-platforms such as The Guardian and the The New York Times , the denunciation of his work by the academic community has reached an excessive level, with thinkers such as Noam Chomsky seeking to undermine the empirical validity of his thought in a surprisingly personalized manner

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Routledge eBooks, Jun 30, 2023

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L'Esprit Créateur, 2017

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Modern Language Notes, Sep 1, 2022

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Lacunae. APPI International Journal for Lacanian Psychoanalysis, 2020

Broadly speaking, this paper sets out to answer the two central questions raised by Dany Nobus at... more Broadly speaking, this paper sets out to answer the two central questions raised by Dany Nobus at the Freud Lacan institute (FLi) pandemic seminar, "Psychoanalytic Practice in Technological Space?" (May 27, 2020): How does the image of the analyst develop in computer-mediated technology? And what happens when the analyst disappears from the physical space and is replaced by the more tangible presence of the screen? Using an inventive expansion of the clinical technique, based on reading the Freudian method through the lens of Slavoj Žižek's dialectical interpretation of Lacanian theory, I argue that COVID-19 is, in psychoanalytic-epidemiological terms, a symptom of a more insidious shadow pandemic: a screen contagion operating in the background of the current public health crisis. Specifically, this paper argues that the encroachment of digital technology and social media into our lives during COVID-19 marks the institution of new symbolic order through a fetishistic inversion that gives rise to a new form of (digitalised) subjectivity.

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Sillages critiques. 27. 'L'Avoir lieu.' Sous la direction de Guillaume Fourcade et Kerry-Jane Wallart, 2019

Revue électronique à comité de lecture répertoriée au DOAJ et rattachée à l'Unité de recherche VA... more Revue électronique à comité de lecture répertoriée au DOAJ et rattachée à l'Unité de recherche VALE : Voix Anglophones, Littérature et Esthétique (E.D. IV, Faculté des Lettres, Sorbonne Université).://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/

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The International Journal of Žižek Studies. ‘What Went Wrong With Žižek?’ , 2019

"The new intimacy is stranger and stronger… because the author is aware of our presence in his mi... more "The new intimacy is stranger and stronger… because the author is aware of our presence in his minds and of our inevitable judgement on him, just as the reader is aware at every moment that he is expecting our judgement […] I believe that this is a unique and as yet untheorised human relationship: not new certainly, but unnamed, and not subsumed under any of our pronominal categories-not 'I-you', or 'them-us' or 'we', but a peculiar absent presence of an otherness which is neither the big Other nor the crowd of eyes" (Fredric Jameson, 2018).

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L'Esprit Créateur. “Modernité du mythe, à partir de Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe”. Edited by Daniel Brewer and Mária Minich Brewer., 2017

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The International Journal of Žižek Studies, Vol. 10, No 3, 2016. , 2016

In the updated preface to the 2008 edition of his seminal work The Sublime Object of Ideology, Sl... more In the updated preface to the 2008 edition of his seminal work The Sublime Object of Ideology, Slavoj Žižek writes that “when a discipline is in crisis, attempts are made to change or supplement its theses within the terms of its basic framework – a procedure one might call ‘Ptolemization’”. The alternative, he claims, is a “true ‘Copernican’ revolution” which takes place “when, instead of just adding complications and changing minor premises, the basic framework itself undergoes a transformation” (Žižek 2008: vii). In light of these remarks, the central question posed in this paper is as follows: how might Žižek’s distinction between a Ptomelization and Copernican revolution be applied to the field of Žižek Studies today? How, in other words, might we seek to re-evaluate Žižek’s work in a way that includes the mechanisms of evaluation as part of the observed phenomena? The working hypothesis is that, as Žižekians, we must reassert the fundamental rule of psychoanalysis as articulated by Žižek himself: one must remember to include as part of the content of the message communicated, the act of communication itself (Žižek 2008: 21). In short, when it comes to the reception of Žižek’s thought we should remember Žižek’s basic point that “the question to ask is always: is this truly a Copernician revolution, or merely a Ptolemization of the old paradigm?” (Žižek 2008: vii).

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Tout-fait: The Marcel Duchamp Studies Online Journal, 2016, 2016

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Seachange: Art, Communication, Technology, Issue 6, 2016. Nommer/Naming 2015, 2016

This essay considers the question of “naming” by re-examining the works of the artist Marcel Duch... more This essay considers the question of “naming” by re-examining the works of the artist Marcel Duchamp on the basis of the conceptual apparatus developed by the Lacanian psychoanalyst and philosopher Slavoj Žižek. For Žižek, naming is understood in terms of its broader social-symbolic texture as a ritualistic, meaning making activity that constitutes the zero level of collectivized belief. The act of appellation is thus seen to function as a strategic operation insofar as it is the fundamental bedrock of ideological interpellation—a performative gesture that situates its bearer as “subject.” As I argue, through his use of titles in general and his Fountain-Urinal in particular, Duchamp openly stages this operation within the parameters of the aesthetic field. In doing so, Duchamp’s oeuvre might be said to render visible the fundamental co-ordinates of Žižek’s theoretical framework while at the same time becoming re-habilitated to its psychoanalytic core.

Au travers d’une ré-interrogation de l’oeuvre de Marcel Duchamp, cette
contribution se propose d’explorer l’acte de nommer d’un point de vue
psychanalytique. Selon le philosophe et psychanalyste lacanien Slavoj Žižek, l’acte de nommer est à considérer dans toute sa texture socio-symbolique. C’est un acte ritualisé significatif qui constitue la base de la croyance collective. L’acte de nommer fonctionne donc à la manière d’une opération stratégique car c’est le socle de l’interpellation idéologique – c’est un geste performatif qui
fait de son énonciateur un « sujet ». Ce sont les titres des oeuvres de Duchamp, et en particulier son readymade connu sous le titre de Fontaine, qui rendent visible cette fonction idéologique sur un plan esthétique. Ainsi, Duchamp fait apparaître les coordonnées fondamentales du cadre théorique žižekien et, par un même mouvement, l’oeuvre duchampienne retrouve son essence psychanalytique.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Lacunae. APPI International Journal for Lacanian Psychoanalysis, Vol. 4, Issue 11, 2015, pp. 165 – 186., 2015

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Lacunae. APPI International Journal for Lacanian Psychoanalysis, Vol. 3, Issue 2, 2014, pp. 40 – 58., Apr 2014

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Sinéad Furlong-Clancy (ed.), The DS Project: Image, Text, Space/Place, 1830-2015, 2015. http://thedsproject.com/ .

At first glance, there would appear to be very little connection between the recent photo of Bara... more At first glance, there would appear to be very little connection between the recent photo of Barack Obama posing for a ‘selfie’ at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela and one of the canonical works of modern art, Edouard Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe. However, upon reflection one might discover a surprising connection: on one side, a celebration of revolutionary politics debased by the obscenities of popular culture; on the other, an adoration of idealized beauty subverted by a revolutionary turn towards modern life. And yet, such a reading would continue to miss the radical, even disturbing, connection between the two images: they are, in fact, two sides of the same phenomenon whose encounter establishes what Slavoj Žižek has termed ‘an impossible short-circuit of levels which, for structural reasons, can never meet’ (Žižek, Interrogating the Real, edited by Rex Butler and Scott Stephens, London: Continuum, 2006, 11).
In this text I wish to argue that the ‘parallax’ perspective required to grasp this impossible relation can be found in the writings of Charles Baudelaire. Baudelaire’s seminal essay The Painter of Modern Life (Le Peintre de la Vie Moderne) has, of course, been consecrated in what Marcel Duchamp calls ‘the primers of art history’ (The Writings of Marcel Duchamp, edited by Michael Sanouillet and Elmer Peterson, New York: Da Capo Press, 1973, 138) as the source of the avant-garde impulse, a ‘call to arms’ for the modern artist. Nevertheless, as a critical discourse it remains, to this day, rather strange and unsettling. Although it draws out the motifs and themes that would become central to the new movement, there are many deadlocks and distortions in the text itself which block a complete and coherent reading.
In my contribution I propose a re-examination of Manet’s image and Baudelaire’s text which reconsiders such gaps and slippages not as obstacles to be overcome but as solutions in themselves, what in the praxis of psychoanalysis is termed a ‘symptom’ and what Žižek redefines through his notion of a ‘parallax’ gap. In doing so, I will attempt to argue that Manet’s painting and Baudelaire’s essay function, on respective visual and verbal levels, as an ‘unmasking gesture of psychoanalysis’ (Žižek, The Sublime Object of Ideology, London: Verso, 2008, 25). Ultimately, by adopting this method I will produce a text of my own which, by developing the central themes of the two images in question, renders explicit their impossible relation.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Springer eBooks, Dec 5, 2017

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Springer eBooks, Dec 5, 2017

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Springer eBooks, Dec 5, 2017

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Springer eBooks, Dec 5, 2017

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The significance of Fountain’s centenary is addressed on two fronts: first, Duchamp’s insistence ... more The significance of Fountain’s centenary is addressed on two fronts: first, Duchamp’s insistence that his work was always intended for a future viewer; second, the numerous inconsistencies in our reading of the work that persist today. The author proposes reassessing Fountain through the lens of Duchamp’s final piece, Etant donnes. By provoking the question “Is this art?” both Fountain and Etant donnes present a seemingly insurmountable deadlock, an irreconcilable opposition between “anti-retinal” and “conceptual” poles. A new approach to this dilemma becomes possible by reading Duchamp with Slavoj Žižek: through a shift in perspective one views the problem as its own solution and comes to recognize how the field of scholarship is included as part of the work.

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With a view to interpreting Duchamp’s Fountain in psychoanalytic terms, a radically new art histo... more With a view to interpreting Duchamp’s Fountain in psychoanalytic terms, a radically new art historical methodology is developed on the basis of clinical practice. First, the author discusses what Žižek sees as a fundamental theoretical error in the standard interpretation of Freud’s approach to dream analysis. This allows for a clearer elucidation of Lacan’s concept of the symptom as the central element in the psychoanalytic procedure. To adapt Lacan’s approach along art historical lines, Žižek’s efforts to draw a homology between the work of the psychoanalyst and that of the detective are applied to “The Richard Mutt Case.” Fountain is thus positioned at the crucial juncture between psychoanalysis and art history, a moment of “short-circuit” that allows a new type of disciplinary exchange to take place.

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The “consecration” of the artist takes place through his inclusion in an art historical tradition... more The “consecration” of the artist takes place through his inclusion in an art historical tradition. This is only possible, however, when “the one-man show” causes an artificial construction to appear as historical fact. Through the effects of the museum apparatus, the artist’s complete oeuvre is misperceived as an embodiment of the very principles according to which it had been judged. This inversion aligns the work in linear chronological terms, thus allowing it be fitted into a narrative of influence and causality. Duchamp’s crucial point is that the one-man show is supported by the actions of “the dealer” in securing a work’s commercial value. By asking Arturo Schwarz to produce replicas of Fountain, Duchamp exposed this crucial operation that proceeded his art historical recognition.

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Springer eBooks, Dec 5, 2017

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Springer eBooks, 2018

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Springer eBooks, Dec 5, 2017

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Preservation, Radicalism, and the Avant-Garde Canon, 2016

Over 100 years since Freud attempted to bridge the gap between psychoanalysis and art history by ... more Over 100 years since Freud attempted to bridge the gap between psychoanalysis and art history by examining the libidinal dynamics of Leonardo da Vinci’s work, the encounter between the two disciplines remains penetrated by antagonism. To all appearances, the relationship between analyst and art historian is rooted in an irreducible tension: in the other, each discipline encounters a troubling excess which calls attention to an inherent limitation in its own respective field. On one side of the encounter, the opening of the aesthetic field onto the clinical setting exposes an insurmountable gap in the art historian’s approach, an obstacle to interpretation that reduces his/her perspective to a particularized, partial reading. Although art history provides the methodological tools for a formal-historical analysis of the aesthetic object, it lacks the specific theoretical horizon that would shed light on the object’s deeper complexities. Unable to account for its theoretical presuppositions, art history remains trapped in formal analysis and is ultimately reduced to a blind ideological exercise.

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Preservation, Radicalism, and the Avant-Garde Canon. London: Palgrave Macmillon, 2016., 2016

This paper will attempt a critical re-reading of Marcel Duchamp’s readymade from the perspective ... more This paper will attempt a critical re-reading of Marcel Duchamp’s readymade from the perspective of Lacanian psychoanalysis by, firstly, outlining and, then, critiquing the analytic framework adopted by the dialectical materialist Slavoj Žižek. For Žižek, Duchamp’s readymade marks the formal limit of the modernist attempt to maintain the ‘minimal gap between the Place and the element that fills it’ (The Fragile Absolute, 2008 27), an operation which becomes obscured when the excessive object is integrated into the established ‘cultural-economic apparatus’ (2008 22).However, it will be argued that there remains a gap in Žižek’s own approach which prevents him from fully integrating the readymade into a psychoanalytic framework. By identifying this gap as a text/image problematic, I will attempt to fully theorize what is at stake in Duchamp’s work by examining the art-form and the notion of ‘Art’ from the Lacanian perspective of the Imaginary and the Symbolic. Overall, the paper aims to (1) establish how the processes of communication have shaped the avant-garde challenge in general, in order to (2) reaffirm the imperative of rereading the visual/verbal co-ordinates of Duchamp’s oeuvre through the lens of the psychoanalytic clinic.

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New evidence of an encounter between Duchamp, the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan and Gustave Courbet... more New evidence of an encounter between Duchamp, the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan and Gustave Courbet’s L’Origine du monde gives urgent critical impetus to two lines of enquiry: an interrogation of Duchamp’s oeuvre on the basis of Lacanian psychoanalysis and an exploration of the precise influence of Courbet on Duchamp. To pursue this aim, the author builds on the work of two Duchampian scholars who have rigorously engaged with Lacan’s conceptual apparatus: Rosalind Krauss and Thierry de Duve. Through a critical reading it is argued that Krauss and de Duve’s efforts to address the issues raised by Duchamp’s work are limited by institutional priorities that render visible the internal logic of art historical practice: how art history reformulates its interpretative models in order to ensure the stability of an established narrative.

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'Modernité du Myth à partir de Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe’, Trinity Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin, May 4 – 5, 2017.

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‘Art History and Psychoanalysis Workshop’, Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies & School of Philosophy and Art History, University of Essex & History of Art Department, University College London, June 8, 2013.

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‘Identities in Flux: Conflict, Construction, the Self and the Other’, International Postgraduate Conference, School of Languages Literatures and Cultural Studies, Trinity College Dublin, May 30, 2013.

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‘Comparing in the Humanities’, International Summer School, University College Cork, Sept. 5 – 9, 2011.

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‘Technologies of the Self: New Departures in Self-Inscription’, International Conference, University College Cork, Sept. 2 – 3, 2011.

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13th Annual Conference of the Association des Etudes Françaises et Francophone d’Irlande (ADEFFI), University College Cork, April 2, 2011.

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‘Forgotten Voices of the Avant-Garde’, International Postgraduate Conference, University of Leeds, Jan 21, 2011.

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12th Annual Conference of the Association des Etudes Francaises et Francophone d’Irlande (ADEFFI), Trinity College Dublin, April 10, 2010.

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Vital Rambaud welcomes Robert Kilroy, English professor at Sorbonne Abu Dhabi and author of "Marc... more Vital Rambaud welcomes Robert Kilroy, English professor at Sorbonne Abu Dhabi and author of "Marcel Duchamp's fountain, one hundred years later" to talk about Marcel Duchamp.

The discussion will be in French.

Talk delivered at Majlis Littéraire, Sorbonne Université Abu Dhabi, Jan. 26. 2017

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'Bridging Art and Science in the 21st Century: Engineering Beauty. The Beauty of Engineering.' In... more 'Bridging Art and Science in the 21st Century: Engineering Beauty. The Beauty of Engineering.' Inter-disciplinary talk held at Sorbonne Université Abu Dhabi, Oct. 23rd 2019.

Bridging Art and Science in the 21st Century:
The Beauty of Engineering. Engineering Beauty.
In what meaningful sense can art be described as a science? Is it possible to legitimately define science as an art? This collaborative initiative attempts to address such questions by bringing together scholars from across the Humanities and the Sciences through a series of unique cross-disciplinary encounters. The aim is to build new bridges by identifying points of convergence and intersection, common concerns that give rise to new ways of approaching the challenges faced in the 21st century.
The first seminar is organized through collaboration between the Department of Archeology and History of Art (SUAD), the Department of Science and Engineering (SUAD), and the Healthcare Engineering Innovation Center (HEIC) at Khalifa University. The aim is to stage a conversation between the engineer and the art historian around the concept of beauty. Cesare Stefanini, Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Khalifa University, Director of HEIC and active in the field of Human Centered Design, will approach this issue by focusing on the question of function. An object’s aesthetic appeal, he argues, is rooted in the act of production: it assumes a particular shape because it is built with a precise purpose in mind. Dr. Robert Kilroy, lecturer on the Masters in History of Art and Museum Studies at SUAD, will then focus on the question of intention. An object’s aesthetic appeal, he argues, is rooted in the effect it produces: it provokes a feeling of sensible pleasure because it is entirely without purpose.
The ultimate aim is for these seemingly separate viewpoints to combine as a single inter-locking perspective. Looking at art from the perspective of science, we arrive at a renewed appreciation of the beauty of engineering. Approaching science form the position of art, we come to new understanding of how beauty is engineered. Such an overlap marks the ground for a new mode of exchange where the space between disciplines (“inter”) is replaced by a focus on the space within (“infra”). Through this shift, the notion of ‘bridge building’ is radically transformed: rather than strive to simply connect two distant locations, we recognize that a single terrain is already divided from within.

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'Recognizing Abstraction: Across, Between, Within Spaces.' Sorbonne Université Abu Dhabi, Feb. 6. 2019

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‘The Future of the Humanities’, Postgraduate Research Seminar, Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Studies, Trinity College Dublin, April 30, 2012.

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English and Philosophy Research Seminar, Department of English, Trinity College Dublin & Department of Philosophy, University College Dublin: ‘Symposium on Desire’, Jan. 22, 2011.

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Trinity French Research Seminar (TFRS), Trinity College Dublin, Mar. 10, 2012.

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Trinity French Research Seminar (TFRS), Trinity College Dublin, Mar. 8, 2011.

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Trinity French Research Seminar (TFRS), Trinity College Dublin, Mar. 9, 2010.

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Education UAE Magazine, 2019

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GCC Education Guide, 2019

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One of the dominant critical trends in art historical

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Conceived, organized, chaired and contributed to panel discussion exploring abstraction as a univ... more Conceived, organized, chaired and contributed to panel discussion exploring abstraction as a universal language that crosses geographical, cultural and chronological spaces.
Event staged in collaboration with the Department of Archaeology and History of Art, Sorbonne Université Abu Dhabi. Panel consisted of contributors from New York University Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi, Jean-Paul Najar Foundation Dubai. Sorbonne Université Abu Dhabi
Feb. 6. 2019

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Inter-disciplinary event co-organised with Prof. Cesare Stefanini, Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Khalifa University in collaboration with the Department of Archaeology and History of Art, Sorbonne Université Abu Dhabi. Event held at Sorbonne Université Abu Dhabi, Oct. 23rd 2020.

In what meaningful sense can art be described as a science? Is it possible to legitimately define... more In what meaningful sense can art be described as a science? Is it possible to legitimately define science as an art? This collaborative initiative attempts to address such questions by bringing together scholars from across the Humanities and the Sciences through a series of unique cross-disciplinary encounters. The aim is to build new bridges by identifying points of convergence and intersection, common concerns that give rise to new ways of approaching the challenges faced in the 21st century.

The first seminar is organized through collaboration between the Department of Archeology and History of Art (SUAD), the Department of Science and Engineering (SUAD), and the Healthcare Engineering Innovation Center (HEIC) at Khalifa University. The aim is to stage a conversation between the engineer and the art historian around the concept of beauty. Cesare Stefanini, Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Khalifa University, Director of HEIC and active in the field of Human Centered Design, will approach this issue by focusing on the question of function. An object’s aesthetic appeal, he argues, is rooted in the act of production: it assumes a particular shape because it is built with a precise purpose in mind. Dr. Robert Kilroy, lecturer on the Masters in History of Art and Museum Studies at SUAD, will then focus on the question of intention. An object’s aesthetic appeal, he argues, is rooted in the effect it produces: it provokes a feeling of sensible pleasure because it is entirely without purpose.

The ultimate aim is for these seemingly separate viewpoints to combine as a single inter-locking perspective. Looking at art from the perspective of science, we arrive at a renewed appreciation of the beauty of engineering. Approaching science form the position of art, we come to new understanding of how beauty is engineered. Such an overlap marks the ground for a new mode of exchange where the space between disciplines (“inter”) is replaced by a focus on the space within (“infra”). Through this shift, the notion of ‘bridge building’ is radically transformed: rather than strive to simply connect two distant locations, we recognize that a single terrain is already divided from within.

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