The avant-garde vision of Sibylle Ruppert

During our recent Zürich exhibition, while strolling through the city, we landed on a gallery and; a coup de Coeur. In the city's heart, Blue Velvet Projects gallery features the works of the late artist; Sibylle Ruppert.
 
All under the directing thread of the Bible of Evil curated by Pierre-Alexandre Mateos & Charles Teyssou; a title assembling multiple inspirations and mediums explored by Ruppert converging in her artistic expression. 
 
At the age of 6, Sibylle Ruppert produced her first drawing: a face punched by a fist. During her teenage years, she spent her time dancing, touring, and working at her father's art school—a time when she allegedly developed her troubling passion for gore and the body in all its stitches.
 
The young artist then created large-format morbid charcoal depictions of the body and flesh, heavily inspired by Marquis de Sade, Comte de Lautréamont, and Georges Bataille's tales of libertinage surrealism and transgression. Bodies of work got her quite some attention at the time and, in turn, inspired other writers with her images of the distorted and sexualized body. As well as developing a deep friendship with H.R. Giger, fueling both parties' artistic essence.
 
An exploration of the body and questioning its components - creating new and queer identities. Sexes not necessarily concording with the attributes of the subjects and redefining the human body. An escape from the normative human body and experience - a questioning of the human experience and envelope. And could very well be representing the traumas of diverse minorities and communities.
 
Her work focused on dark and esoteric paraphilia, all in surrealism, tackling subjects such as anger, fear, desire, death, and trauma. Her art, filled with biblical symbolism, is intricate and depicts visions of discomforting topics. And it is defined by motion and transformation into disconcerting shapes and creatures—a depiction of evil and its phenomenon offered through Sibylle Ruppert's eye.
 
At the end of her career, she distanced herself from Eigen production and leaned towards teaching in schools, prisons, mental hospitals, and drug addiction centers. Sibylle Ruppert died in 2011 in complete social autarky. 
 
Sibylle Ruppert, the bible of evil, featured at the Blue Velvet Projects gallery from the 12th of November to the 23rd of December 2022.
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Images courtesy of ⁠the Blue Velvet Projects gallery