Master Class THE HYBRID-MONSTER BODY: Shapeshifting as Rebellion by Jasmine Reimer

“The Hybrid-Monster Body: Shapeshifting as Rebellion” is a 5-day intensive program held in a studio environment hosted by BERLIN ART INSTITUTE from July 28 – August 01, 2025. In this masterclass we will learn about the hybrid body in 15th and 16th century Italy, with a focus on hybrids found in Grotesque-style paintings in the Domus Aurea. In addition to analyzing art historical and contemporary hybrid bodies – their representation, motifs and symbolism – the course also explores the Grotesque genre and its socio-political context and effects. We will explore how the ancient hybrid body, with its shape-shifting form, disruptive imagery and rebellious nature, challenged conservative ideals, the new bodily cannon, gender binaries and inter-species relations with images once considered “monstrous”. Using feminist and queer theory, fiction, podcasts and other sources, we will examine how 15/16th century ideologies compare with current gender and identity politics and the concept of “normal” in relation to the body. We will identify and explore the contemporary hybrid body as a generative form of monstrosity and its significance in contemporary culture.

In 15th century Rome, a boy fell through an air pocket in the ground. Below was the Domus Aurea constructed by the ancient emperor Nero. After Nero’s death in 68AD, the city buried the Domus Aurea in the earth. Upon its re-discovery, visitors (those brave enough to crawl through its dark subterranean domain) encountered a cave-like world, featuring murals of bizarre, fantastical hybrid bodies – bodies that transformed from human to animal to plant to architectural element to object, and back again. They discovered the style of artwork we now call Grotesque.

Following the re-discovery of the Domus Aurea, avant garde artists in the 15th and 16th centuries (i.e., Perugino, Signorelli, and the famous Raphael) mastered the ancient techniques of the Grotesque style. Initially rejected by dominant social classes, historians and critics, it soon grew in popularity, manifesting in both visual and literary forms. Because, more than just decoration, Grotesque style hybrid was a form of political defiance. Its “monstrous” imagery rebelled against the authoritative, restrictive, bourgeois ideas of normality, beauty and taste established during the renaissance – that of smooth, perfectly proportioned and uniform bodies.
Of particular importance to the Grotesque aesthetic was a body that blurs and exceeds limitations, that exhibits multiplicity and fluidity – legs that transform into vines, stomachs and eyes that bulge, bodies that mesh and interconnect. Seen as “mutant, terrible, unnatural, out-of-order and disrespectful”, the hybrid body was classified as a monster. But it was its innate rebelliousness, its ability to defy, provoke and contest that makes the hybrid-monster body a powerful symbol of transformation, change and resistance. Refusing to be bound by the rigid categories of patriarchy, colonialism and capitalism, the hybrid-monster body poses a threat to our need for simplicity, gender binaries, single-species policies and fixed identities.

During the course participants will explore the above-mentioned characteristics and features of the Grotesque hybrid-monster through classic and contemporary readings, podcasts and videos, in addition to research, presentations and discussion. In keeping with the subject of the course, participants will investigate the significance of Grotesque hybrid-monster body in ancient and contemporary cultures via exercises that combine found and made objects, 2D and 3D materials, written and visual elements. The curriculum is based on a feminist understanding of transformation, the body and the hybrid-monster body as they relate to acts of resistance, and gender, reproductive and identity politics. Focusing on the hybrid as a generative, critical symbol and potential model for socio-political change, we will explore the hybrid-monster as a way to avoid binary thinking, and move beyond patriarchal, capitalist systems and ideologies. (Text & photos by courtesy of Jasmine Reimer )

Day 1
9:30 AM Reception at the BAI
UNNATURAL, DISRESPECTFUL, MONSTERS”: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE CLASSIC HYBRID

Morning Session:
1. Group Introduction

To begin the class, Jasmine will briefly introduce her art practice and her teaching approach. The group will also have an opportunity to introduce themselves and their practices.

2. Presentation and Group Discussion

After the introduction, Jasmine will lead a presentation titled, “Unnatural, Disrespectful, Monsters”: An Introduction to the Classic Hybrid”, with opportunities for group discussion, questions and small exercises throughout.

Presentation Topics include:

• Introduction: the features of the hybrid body
• Introduction to The Domus Aurea and its historical context
• The invention of the Grotesque style
• Introduction to the Grotesque and its features
• The hybrid body as Grotesque and rebellious
• Grotesque hybrids and their symbolism

LUNCH – approx. 45mins

Afternoon Session:
3. In-Class Drawing Exercise: Hybrid Drawing Prompts 1

Participants will engage in an experimental drawing exercise guided by verbal and auditory prompts offered by Jasmine and course participants. The exercise will be carried out individually in participants’ sketchbooks or on pieces of paper. The prompts will be associated with the morning’s presentation. Jasmine will guide participants in the creation of drawing prompts.

Participants will have the chance to discuss their experiments, experience, ideas and share drawings from the session.

4. End-of-Day Sketchbook Exercise: Cluster Writing 1
Each session will end with individual journal/sketchbook entries prompted by the end-of-day discussion. Participants will also have an opportunity to discuss subjects and ideas from the first day.

Homework
There will be an assigned reading at the end of the first class, to be discussed as a group the following day. Please read the selected text and come to class prepared with 2-3 questions/comments to contribute.

Day 2
THE RISE AND FALL OF THE HYBRID-BODY IN HISTORY

Morning Session:
1. Discussion of Assigned Reading
The class will begin with a group discussion of the assigned reading, with opportunity to read excerpts collectively, ask questions and relate the material to the previous presentation and participants’ practices.

2. In-Class Reading, Title TBA
The group will read a selected text in-class, followed by a discussion of the main points and associations, led by Jasmine.

3. Presentation: “The Rise and Fall of the Hybrid Body in History”
After a short break, Jasmine will lead a presentation titled, “The Rise and Fall of the Hybrid Body in History”, with opportunities for group discussion, questions and small exercises throughout.

Presentation Topics include:

• The initial spread of the Grotesque in Italy and Europe
• The rise of the Grotesque style and popularity of the hybrid body – why?
• The Grotesque hybrid in Europe – artwork and decoration
• The decline in popularity of the hybrid body and the rise of a new bodily cannon – why?

LUNCH – approx. 45mins

Afternoon Session:
4. Drawing Exercise: The Hybrid Body and its Mythologies
Jasmine will share selected mythologies related to the hybrid body. Participants will then create images of hybrid bodies, and related mythologies, from their imagination using a combination of drawing and collage techniques. Participants will have an opportunity to share and discuss drawings at the end of the exercise.

5. Daily Sketchbook Exercise: Cluster Writing 2
The day will end with individual journal/sketchbook entries. Participants will be asked to review the journal entry from Cluster 1 looking for any similarities, overlaps in subject and ideas, or differences. Participants will then write a new entry based on their observations.

*Please note, in some instances, the Daily Sketchbook Exercise may be assigned as homework.

Homework – TBA

Day 3
THE GROTESQUE AS MONSTROSITY

Morning Session:
1. Participant Presentations of Grotesque
The day will begin with participant presentations of their Grotesque selection, followed by a short coffee break.

2. In-Class Reading: Title TBA
Following the break, we will read excerpts from a text(s) in the style of or on the topic of the contemporary Grotesque. The group will discuss the text in relation to the course content with opportunities to ask questions and offer personal insights.

LUNCH – approx. 45mins

Afternoon Session:
3. Presentation: “The New Grotesque in Literature, Media, Art and Film” with opportunities for group discussion, questions and small exercises throughout.

Presentation Topics include:

• The transformation of the traditional Grotesque (and hybrid body) to monstrous
• The conflation of the Grotesque and the gross or disgusting
• The Grotesque in contemporary politics, climate crisis and war
• The Grotesque as weird, horrific, fantastical and strange in contemporary culture
• Political and social implications of the new Grotesque

4. Daily Sketchbook Exercise:  Cluster Writing 4
The day will end with a journal/sketchbook entry. Participants will be asked to reread the entries from Cluster 3, looking for related themes, patterns, and questions. Participants will then be asked to create a new entry based on their observations.

*Please note, in some instances, the Daily Sketchbook Exercise may be assigned as homework.

Homework
Listening and Drawing Exercise: Bayo Okomolafe “Facing the Monstrous”

Participants will engage in an independent listening and drawing exercise at home. Listening to the podcast with Cultural Critic, Poet and Activist, Bayo Okomolafe titled, “Facing the Monstrous”, participants will draw and write ideas spontaneously motivated by the podcast topics, Okomolafe’s words, and imagery. *Participants should come to the following class prepared to share their drawings and writing with the group.

Day 5
THE BODY AS MONSTROUS

Morning Session:
1. Participant Presentations of Homework
The day will begin with participant presentations of their assigned task, “Drawing and Listening – Bayo Okomolafe”

2. Presentation: “The Body as Monstrous”
Jasmine will lead the final presentation on the topic of “The Body as Monstrous”, with opportunities for group discussion, questions and small exercises throughout.

Presentation Topics include:

• Brief history of the body as a “beast in need of control”
• The [female] body as susceptible to evil and monstrous acts
• The [female] body] as shapeshifter
• The contemporary genre of “body horror”
• Contemporary body politics and relation to the hybrid-monster body

LUNCH – approx. 45mins

Afternoon Session:
3. Daily Sketchbook Exercise:  Cluster Writing, In Class 5
Using the journal/sketchbook entries made in the previous classes, participants will create new hybrid-monster “clusters” based on their previous writing. Reviewing their entries, each participant will write a new entry based on the similarities, overlaps and/or differences found between days. The new “cluster” should be an experimental writing piece that reflects the individual’s ideas about hybrid-monster bodies and how it relates to their individual practices.

4. Drawing Exercise: Durational Drawing
Participants will then engage in a final drawing exercise using the “clusters” as guides for imagery and materials. Collage, drawing and other experimental techniques will be used.

5. Group Discussion
The final day of the course will end with a group discussion of the course ideas, themes and activities with opportunity to discuss, ask questions, and reflect on how the materials have impacted participants’ ideas and/or approaches to their work.
Participants will have the opportunity to share their work and ideas and provide feedback to peers.

Hours: Each day from 10 AM – 4 PM (including several breaks & lunchtime)

Seats: Min: 6 | Max: 20 | Language: English

Fees: There is a one-off registration fee of €50. The participation fee is €850 per person (without accommodation).

The fee is VAT-exempt by the Governing Mayor of Berlin – Senate Chancellery Higher Education and Research pursuant to Paragraph 4 No. (21) (a)(bb) UStG (German Value Added Tax Act).