&  Do the Twist

As artists, we feed off each other.  (“Mmmm, brains!) And let’s face it, we don’t always have other like-minded folks around to collaborate and brainstorm with. We’re a pack animal that’s been forced out to pasture to find the green to make our means.

Therefore, The Exquisite Corpse Project is set to be an ongoing collaborative dialogue between artists, despite their location. Using digital media software and an internet connection, it doesn’t matter where you are or what you do, we just want to keep those juices flowin’ and have a little fun while we’re at it.

We’re going to kick off the first series in the traditional sense of the game, using three artists per corpse. Each artist will be blind to the adjoining artwork, receiving a digital file revealing only 1/4” of the previous piece. They have to work off of the file they are given to create a new frame. That will be sent back to us, and we will send the next artist another digital file, showing only 1/4” of that piece, and so on. Each part will be sent back to us to be put together, and the end result will be posted here. (All participants will be attributed).

We’ve got a lot of exciting projects for the future, so follow us & keep updated!

If you’d like to participate, send an email to drinkthenewwine@gmail.com to be added to our list and for further detailed instructions.

Fold it in three, and pass it to me.

The technique was invented by Surrealists and is similar to an old parlour game called Consequences in which players write in turn on a sheet of paper, fold it to conceal part of the writing, and then pass it to the next player for a further contribution. André Breton reported that it started in fun, but became playful and eventually enriching. Breton said the diversion started about 1925, but Pierre Reverdy wrote that it started much earlier, at least before 1918.^[1][2]

In a variant now known as picture consequences, instead of sentences, portions of a person were drawn.^[3]

Later the game was adapted to drawing and collage, producing a result similar to children’s books in which the pages were cut into thirds, the top third pages showing the head of a person or animal, the middle third the torso, and the bottom third the legs, with children having the ability to “mix and match” by turning pages. It has also been played by mailing a drawing or collage — in progressive stages of completion — to the players, and this variation is known as “exquisite corpse by airmail”, or “mail art,” depending on whether the game travels by airmail or not.

The name is derived from a phrase that resulted when Surrealists first played the game, “Le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau.” (“The exquisite corpse will drink the new wine.”)^[4][5]

Source: Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exquisite_corpse