The UTAH EXQUISITE CORPSE ART PROJECT
The Utah Exquisite Corpse Project is an exhibition of 25 collaborative artworks created by 58 Utah artists. Each piece is divided into several panels, each painted by a different artist, working in ignorance of what the other participants are doing, leading to fantastical and absurd figures and stories. The only clues telling each artist what to paint were the knowledge of where their panel was in relation to the whole, and lines or colors left at the top of their panel by the previous artist. The project was inspired by games played in the 1920s and ‘30s by the Surrealists in Paris. The name Exquisite Corpse (translated from the French Cadavre Exquis) came from the phrase “The exquisite corpse shall drink the new wine,” which was generated from a word game played by Marcel Duhamel, Yves Tanguy, Surrealist leader André Breton, and others around 1920. The first exquisite corpses were writing exercises in which participants wrote on a piece of paper, folding it to conceal part of the story before passing it to the next player, who continued writing from there, folding the paper again and passing it along, etc. Before long, the practice was adapted to the visual arts, with a folded sheet of paper passed from one player to the next, each of them drawing a portion of the whole and extending little marks over the folded edge to show the next artist where their lines should start. One century later, we began the project with some traditional ink-on-paper exquisite corpses (four of which are included in this collection). We then adapted the process further to create full-color paintings made up of several sections of stretched canvas or panels.
We’ve found that creating these exquisite corpses has presented us with palettes and problems we never would have encountered in our normal work, providing a valuable and challenging artistic exercise and a chance to step out of our standard routines. It also gives us a chance to partake in an unusual form of communication with other artists, second-guessing how they might interpret the cues we leave on their panel, or, from the other point of view, trying to infer an image of their panel from the vaguest of footprints. We hope this exhibition is equally inspiring for the viewing public and that it motivates people to create exquisite corpses of their own.
List of artists: Trent Alvey, Kenn Anderson, Cassandra Barney, Brian Bean, Susan J. Beck, Erin Berrett, Connie Borup, Valori Boss, Carel Brest van Kempen, David Brothers, Joe Carter, Trent Call, Craig Cleveland, Sam Collett, Darrell Driver, Mike Fahl, Kindra Fehr, Grant Fuhst, Susan Gallacher, Jeffrey Hale, Aria Hancock, Trent Harris, Paul Heath, Willamarie Huelskamp, Shilo Jackson, Susan Jarvis, Gailon Justus, Sandy Kerman, Susan Kirby, James Kirkland, Lenka Konopasek, Chuck Landvatter, Jamie Love, Chris Maggio, Vince Mattina, Marlee Mitchell, Mike Murdock, Josh Murano, Socar Myles, Traci O’Very Covey, Stacy Phillips, Bonnie Posselli, Andrew Rice, Bruce Robertson, Glen Rollins, Chauncey Secrist, Kelly Seim, Lori Shields, Brad Slaugh, Martin Stensaas, Tracy Strauss, Scott Tuckfield, Kevin Wasden, Sri Whipple, Demaril Whitaker, Clinton Whiting, Elise Zoller, and Matalyn Zundel.
Photo (detail): "Exquisite Corpse #19" (left to right: Scott Tuckfield, Carel Brest van Kempen, Willamarie Huelskamp, Martic Stensaas, Susan Gallacher), 20” x 50”, various media on canvas
Resources
- Press Release
- Artist Biographies
- Downloadable press photo (Photo credit: Exquisite Corpse #19 (left to right: Scott Tuckfield, Carel Brest van Kempen, Willamarie Huelskamp, Martic Stensaas, Susan Gallacher) 20” x 50” various media on canvas)
- Educational Materials