THE EXCESS FLESH

THE GROTESQUE AS A HETEROLOGICAL OPERATION IN SIBYLLE RUPPERT'S WORK

Abstract

This article investigates the work of German artist Sibylle Ruppert, highlighting it as a manifestation of the grotesque that defies and transcends traditional artistic classifications through the obscene, violence, and the absurd. Drawing a distinction from H. R. Giger's biomechanics, this study proposes that the grotesque in Sibylle Ruppert's work is not limited to the fusion of the organic and the mechanical, but rather operates as a process of destabilization aligned with Georges Bataille's heterology. The analysis articulates the grotesque with the concepts of the informe (formless) and heterology, aiming to demonstrate how the artist dissolves bodily boundaries to expose an obscene and irreducible materiality, approached here as "excess flesh" (carne-em-excesso). Through an analysis of her drawings, especially the series for the Marquis de Sade and Lautréamont, and by comparing them with the logic of Hans Bellmer's “anagrammatic body”, the article examines how Sibylle Ruppert uses fragmentation, montage, and metamorphosis to create a universe where no synthesis is possible. It concludes that the German artist's work mobilizes the grotesque not merely as a formal excess, but as a heterological operation that stages the collapse of form and reason, transforming the dreamlike fantasy associated with the grotesque into a nightmarish vertigo, where the only constant is the irresolvable tension between opposing forces.