The drawings below are a product of “exquisite corpse,” a collaborative drawing game developed in Surrealist circles during the 1920s. The technique relies on accident and serendipity: separate artists draw the top, middle, and bottom of each piece, without having seen each other’s contributions.
To learn more, read Alana Price’s blog post and Amanda Armstrong’s essay on “Capitalism and the Exquisite Corpse.”
How to Play “Exquisite Corpse”:
The first artist draws the top portion and extends her drawing a centimeter below the first fold. With the top folded out of view, the second artist incorporates the fringes of the first artist’s drawing into his own composition. Then, the third artist follows suit, drawing the bottom portion based on cues provided by the second artist. At the end, the paper is unfolded to reveal the full collaborative drawing.
About the Artists
These drawings were created by the Accidental Art Collective, an informal circle of artists including Lizzie Aldag, María Alvarez, Amanda Armstrong, Andrea Baker, Sabiha Basrai, Rachel Best, Jessica Carleton, Megan Coleman, Kat Fredrickson, Nicole Hand, Elinore Kaufman, Andrew Kyser, Cadelba Lomelí-Loibl, Gabriel McElwain, Tev Monnin, Alana Price, Mark Robinson, Traci Schlesinger, and their friends.
