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Chicago, Illinois 60637
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The Richard and Mary L. Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry at the University of Chicago is pleased to announce the release of the fifth issue of Portable Gray, a publication that draws on the work of the Gray Center, a research center for experimental collaborations between artists and scholars.
Published twice annually (fall/spring) by the University of Chicago Press, Portable Gray is a forum for experimenting with two genres of publication: the scholarly journal and the art magazine. Each issue forms around a theme, which it treats elastically and through myriad forms: artworks, essays, interviews, reflections, photography, poetry among others.
About this issue
Our fifth edition of Portable Gray thinks through the theme of “horror as a way of life” by considering a wide spectrum of topics, from horror as a genre of fantasy in a variety of artforms to real-life horrors that painfully haunt our world in 2020.
Editor’s Plaisance
Zachary Cahill
Old-fashioned Horror in the Age of Ragnarok
Mike Mignola and Zachary Cahill
“WHY DON’T WE WAIT HERE, SEE WHAT HAPPENS” Seven (and a Half) Midsummer Musings on Thingness
Dieter Roelstraete
The Darker Parts of Ourselves: Corinne Halbert Discusses Her Art
The Horrors That Bind Us a conversation about the horror genre in the Middle East
Fadi (the fdz) Baki and Gregg Burris
Horrorshows: Walker Spills It! Elms Drinks It!
Anthony Elms and Hamza Walker
Horror Refigured
Alireza Doostdar and Morehshin Allahyari
For White Folks Who Have Considered Terror, When Privilege was Enuf: The thrills of the White Gaze
Carris Adams, Danny Giles, Jenn M. Jackson, Jared Richardson
A Country As Far Away As Health
Omar Kholeif
Defense Drama
Marc Fischer
Masks and Symbols: In Between Paranoia and Schizophrenia
Catherine Malabou
As Chicago Slept
Robert Bird (1969–2020)
A Hermeneutics of Sound: Interrupted Scenes and King Leopold’s Congo
Nancy Rose Hunt
Nightmare on 35th Street: Commemorating the Chicago 1919 Race Riots at the Vortex of Violence
Franklin N. Cosey-Gay, Peter Cole, Myles Francis, Sydney Lawrence, and Antoinette Raggs
Terra Incognita
Natacha Nsabimana and Amelia Umuhire
For the online issue and subscription information click here.
Executive Editors: Seth Brodsky & Ghenwa Hayek
Editor-in-chief: Zachary Cahill
Senior Editor: Mike Schuh
Managing editor: Naomi Blumberg
Design: David Khan-Giordano
ISSN 2637-8361
About the Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry
The Richard and Mary L. Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry is a forum at the University of Chicago for experimental collaborations between artists and scholars. Gray Center activities take place all over campus (encompassing various divisions, departments, and programs), across the community, throughout the city, and beyond. Through its various programs—including the Mellon Residential Fellowships for Arts Practice and Scholarship, exploratory research initiatives, the monthly Sidebar conversation series (reconceived as FarBar for the academic year 2020–21), Gray Sound, an experimental music and sound performance series, international conferences, and institutional collaborations—the Gray Center seeks to foster a culture of innovation and experimentation at the intersection of arts practice and scholarship.
Press contact
Mike Schuh, Gray Center Assistant Director of Fellowships and Operations, at mikes1@uchicago.edu.
