Andres Serrano is an American photographer and artist known for his controversial images famously consisting of religious symbols, bodily fluids, corpses, and human waste. His most famously inflammatory artwork Immersion (Piss Christ) (1987) generated outrage and critical discourse due to its incorporation of the abject in a religious context. The concept of the abject, as articulated by Julia Kristeva, represents the liminal space that poses a threat to societal boundaries of the self and the other, the inside and the outside, and the human and non-human (Kristeva 2). The work Piss Christ displays a small wooden-plastic crucifix immersed in a jar of the artist’s own urine. Bathed in golden red and surrounded by a galaxy of bubbles, the statue emits a halo-like glow. Due to the lighting choice and the liquid, the piss in question appears both foreign and familiar simultaneously. The artwork has generated intense reactions from religious groups and conservative politicians who view it as a form of blasphemy. However, some scholars suggest that Serrano’s use of the abject is instead a form of resistance against the dominant narratives of the Christian church. 

In her examination of works by Christian artists titled “Abject Aesthetics in Contemporary Christian Art: The De-Euphemizing Impulse in Flannery O’Connor, Andres Serrano, and Bruce Beasley,” American art scholar Ariana Kim argues that Serrano’s work challenges the euphemizing tendencies of traditional Christian art and opens up new possibilities for interpretation. In addition, Serrano’s work may be viewed as a critical reconsideration of the mind-body relationship Christians keep in terms of Jesus Christ’s own human form and mortality. Kim writes “Viewers encounter in Piss Christ a refusal to metabolize incongruities between the self and the other, the flesh and the spirit, the sacred and the profane” (Kim 48). By invoking the connection between flesh and spirit, Kim discusses the nature of the body politics of Christ in reference to how as the embodiment of God in human form, his human body was tortured and mutilated. Bringing about the reality of the natural crucifixion, Serrano wants the use of the abject to trigger an image of what the real crucifixion is supposed to be: far more gruesome and grisly to behold than a jar of urine (45). In Piss Christ, Serrano transforms the powerful symbol of the crucifix, a cornerstone of Christian iconography, into something abject, confronting the viewer with the contradictions and tensions inherent in religious beliefs. Serrano’s self-described faith has been a subject of interest in critical analyses of his work. Writing on Serrano’s mediation between the profane and the sacred, American scholar and professor of visual arts Catherine Bernard notes that Serrano’s work is a critique of society’s values and that it seeks to confront audiences with uncomfortable truths. Specifically, Bernard notes Serrano’s awed approach to delivering the truths that we all urinate and die, both of which confront the viewer instantly and subconsciously penetrate the mind’s eye upon looking at the work. She suggests that Piss Christ challenges viewers’ aesthetic sensibilities and forces them to confront the abject, which signs the repulsive and the rejected: the urine. Serrano’s use of the abject invites viewers to position their assumptions about beauty amidst the horrific pain of the crucifixion. Additionally, in considering human secretion, Serrano ultimately challenges dominant aesthetic norms in contemporary art.

Close view of Immersion (Piss Christ) (1987)

In his discussion of Taboo Icons, which are images that are simultaneously orthodox, polarizing, and may be perceived as threatening, American curator and scholar Tyler Shine analyzes Serrano’s bodily photography by emphasizing the abject nature of Piss Christ. Shine suggests that Serrano’s photographs carry important political and social messages about Christian identity, the power of the body in relationship to faith, and the agency of the artist in question. Specifically, Shine considers how Serrano’s Piss Christ, framed in dialogue with his other photo series featuring Christian imagery and bodily emissions, interrogates the link between signifier and signified, which sheds light on the intangible nature of creating meanings that are too evasive to be contained to the inflexible predominant doctrine of Christian structure to the artistic intentions behind the work (29). In Piss Christ, the oft-considered indecent juxtaposition of the fluid of urine – rejected from the human body – with the crucifix, a symbol of divinity and transcendence, challenges viewers to reconsider the relationship between the body and the divine spirit, the material and the spiritual, and the profane and the sacred. 

Piss Christ in view among Body & Spirit Exhibit

As mentioned, art critics have repeatedly raised concerns about the insensitivity and sacrilegious nature of Serrano’s work. Mexican-American writer and academic Ilan Stavans and Cuban-American philosopher Jorge J. E. Gracia argue in a critical discussion titled “On Desecration: Andrés Serrano, Piss Christ” about whether the artist’s apparent desecration of religious symbols, such as the crucifix, is blasphemous and disrespectful. Stavans argues that Piss Christ is a powerful and provocative work of art that challenges viewers to consider the relationship between Christian theology and social normativity, and that the outrage it has provoked is an important part of the work’s meaning. Gracia, on the other hand, disagrees with Stavans and argues that the work is offensive and disrespectful to Christians and Christ and that it contributes to a culture of desecration and violation of faith (Stevans 584). While considering that the work may not be a form of blasphemy that violates Christ or His divinity, but rather a cultural criticism of the Christian faith as an organized culture, Gracia ultimately decides that the work mocks and insults both Christ and his followers. Stevans views Serrano’s use of the abject as not intentionally disrespectful or offensive toward Christian beliefs but rather as a way to provoke important discussions about the role of art and the relationship between Christianity and Christian society (585). Overall, Stavans and Gracia have different perspectives on the value and meaning of Piss Christ. However, both authors engage in a thoughtful and nuanced discussion of the artwork and its place in contemporary culture.

In reconsidering the dominant narratives of the Christian church, Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ invites critics and viewers to question their own relationship to these concepts and to engage in dialogue about the boundaries of artistic expression as well as the limitations of Christian art in Western society. By interrogating Christianity with the abject, Serrano invites uncomfortable conversations about religion, morality, and aesthetics, pushing the boundaries of traditional artistic expression and challenging viewers to reconsider their assumptions as well as traditional notions set forth by the existing dominant Christian narratives.

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