wIth my "second skin" swatch, I was mostly inspired from the critical writings of the grotesque. The reason I chose this topic, was that without a doubt, the grotesque body is always choosing to say something. It is not complacent with the world it is in, and so it blends and opens itself to its surrounds to force us to look at it.

 

                               a major influence for the ideology of the "Grotesque" was Mikhail Bakhtin in his book "Rabelais and his world." He questioned the simple analysis the term had been given and sought to uncover a deeper and more justified meaning. some of his ideas that stood out to me are about exaggeration and the blending of worlds.

he states that 

                                      Exaggeration, hyperbolism, excessiveness are generally                                               considered fundamental attributes of the grotesque style.

                                   the example of grotesque the object of mockery is a specific                                      negative phenomenon, something that "should not exist". 306

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"The limits between the body and the world are erased, leading to the fusion of the one with the other and with surrounding objects."310

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                              "The unfinished and open body (dying, bringing forth and being born) is

not separated from the world by clearly defined boundaries; it is blended with the world, with animals, with objects." 27

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This open body is a notion that is synonymous with the grotesque. Francesca Granata writes that "the grotesque body is an open, unfinished body, which is never sealed or fully contained, but it is always in the process of becoming and engendering another body."

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