January 10–23, 2027
Chaos Temple
with Elijah Burgher
What happens when we pick up a stick of charcoal or brush dipped in ink If we take seriously William S. Burroughs’ dictum that “all art is magical in origin [...] Paintings were originally formulae to make what is painted happen”? Magic offers artists a set of imaginative tools with which to think otherwise about the work they do. In this course, students will examine concepts and imagery from witchcraft, hermeticism, alchemy and the occult and then focus the materials, processes and psychic investments of the studio through the lens of spellcraft. Drawing will be emphasized as a research methodology and unique medium of expression. As part of a larger inquiry into symbols, we will study various examples of “unknown languages” such as the myth of Odin’s discovery of the runes, Austin Osman Spare’s sigil magic, the Martian scripts of the 19th century spiritual medium Hélène Smith, and the automatic techniques of the surrealists through slide lectures and guided drawing exercises. James George Frazer’s principles of sympathetic magic will be used to think differently about both figurative representation and the specificity and history of materials and tools in drawing, collage and painting. Additional themes will include origin myths, ritual, sacrifice, mimesis, divination, and chance. We will look at the work of artists including Jesse Bransford, Atis Rezistans/Ghetto Biennale, Judith Noble, Marjorie Cameron, Wifredo Lam and Emma Kunz. Readings will include excerpts from Ovid’s Metamorphoses and "Thee Splinter Test' by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge; and screenings will include films by Maya Deren and Scott Treleaven. Using James George Frazer’s “law of contagion” to think about source materials and wish fulfillment, students will use scissors and glue as magical weapons with which to resurrect failed artworks and discarded imagery as talismanic collages. This class will culminate in an indoor or outdoor installation of finished pieces.
Pricing Information: Tuition & Fees; $175 lab fee
Registration Information: Monday, November 16, 2026
SAIC/For Credit Course Code: PAINTING & DRAWING 606 001 | 3 credits
About the faculty artist
Using painting, drawing, and printmaking, Elijah Burgher (he/him) works at the crossroads of representation and language, figuration and abstraction, and the real and imagined. Drawing from mythology, ancient history, the occult, and ritual magick, Burgher cultivates a highly intimate code of symbolism to investigate the personal and cultural dynamics of desire, love, subcultural formation, and the history of abstraction. He was featured in Block Party at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, Pennsylvania (2023); Scrivere Desegnando at the Centre d'Art Contemporain Geneva (2020), Queer Abstraction at the Des Moines Art Center (2019), For Opacity at the Drawing Center in New York City (2018), and the 2014 Whitney Biennial, among others. He is the co-author of Sperm Cult with Richard Hawkins, published by Bad Dimension Press in 2017. Burgher received a MFA from the School of the Art Institute, Chicago and a BA from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY. He is represented by PPOW in New York, Western Exhibitions in Chicago and Ivan Gallery in Bucharest. Burgher lives and works in Berlin.