Punching Crunch time in the face

Exquisite Corpse opens this Friday! Local artists have been dropping off their pieces at the exhibition space, and pieces from across the country and overseas have been signed, sealed, delivered (and could be yours! support starving artists!). And. They. Look. Amazing. Really, you need to see the art in person. Get excited.

As a preview of what you can expect at the show, here’s a striking collaboration by Boston-based artist Gideon Ansell and Amsterdam-based artist Mark Pol:

Image courtesy of Gideon Ansell, 2011.

Installation begins tomorrow. Let’s do this.

Affixed words [for the] media // Mixed media bird [women]

The press release for Exquisite Corpse has been… released. Read up.

Here’s one of two pieces by Amanda Mudrovich and Moca Garcia:

Image courtesy of Amanda Mudrovich, 2011.

Image courtesy of Amanda Mudrovich, 2011.

Thus begins the countdown: less than 10 days until opening night.

“How many surrealists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?”

“A fish.” (Thank you, Carrie McGath.)

More behind-the-scenes previews of Exquisite Corpse artwork (find past sneak peeks here, here, here, and not there but here):

A piece by Robin Rios and Derail Howery:

Image courtesy of Robin Rios, 2011.

Werewolves? Vampires? A post-apocalyptic showdown between Adam and Eve? This is not your mother’s hairdresser’s lover’s dog walker’s dealer’s nanny’s chessboard.

The final version of this piece by Brittany Majka, Carrie McGath, and Jennifer Moore:

Image courtesy of Jennifer Moore, 2011.

I never would’ve expected it to take such a direction, and I love that. See more photos—including other exquisite corpses—and read about the process at Jennifer’s very informative blog, where there are a few NSFW images (although still much classier than the Marilyn Monroe behemoth she, Brittany, and Carrie [rightfully] mock).

A work in progress by Jessica Drogosz, to be added to by Avisheh Mohsenin and Jes Standefer:

Image courtesy of Jessica Drogosz, 2011.

Philadelphia-based artist Becket Flannery (whom I interviewed for my first Sixty Inches From Center article) and New York-based artist Tucker Rae-Grant are organizing their collaborations around the idea of bait and trap, “both in the sense of how painting operates as a trap, how the surface is a kind of bait and the frame is a kind of trap, [and] also the ways in which paintings and art objects can be tactical.”

Diane Ponder, Lorraine Grandinetti working on behalf of the late Frank Grandinetti, and Patricia Biesen are keeping their individual images unknown to each other until the opening reception, where they will unveil their final piece. Similarly, Deirdre Fox, Jessie Winslow, and Zachary Trebellas “would like to maintain the mystery for now.” The images and videos I’ve seen so far from both groups, however, are making it very hard for me to not share them with you (Patricia even stated, “I’ve just created one of the most unique paintings of my entire career for this event”), but fortunately (or unfortunately), I [think I] have willpower.

And Cassie Hamrick and Veronica Stein are working on a series of pillows that will be displayed on couches and chairs they’ve found throughout the exhibition space. Guests will be able to touch and interact with these pieces. Art: it comes in furniture form too.

And that’s not even all the artists.

Basically, this is going to be one hell of a show.

Behind the Curtain + Lifting the Veil

The tables have been turned—I’ve been interviewed by Sixty Inches From Center. Most peculiar. Read the interview here if you dare.

Irene Wellm, Kirsten Perry, and Adriane Strampp have released the following statement regarding their collaboration, Spiritus Saltus, which was revealed several days ago:

Our practice for this piece was to follow the traditional procedure of Exquisite Corpse, where each artist has no idea of what the other artist has done. Each of us found this to be a nervous experience, feeling trepidation and a sense of responsibility towards the other two artists. Yet it was paradoxically a freeing experience to not be completely responsible for the artwork’s outcome! No restrictions other than the registration marks were made, so as to allow for playfulness.

Ultimately the drawing process took over, and without predetermination, it became an enjoyable reprieve from our personal everyday practices.

The unveiling, done with ceremony, was nerve-wracking and exciting. How was this going to come together? Averting our gazes as the work was unwrapped and displayed, finally the moment was there. And what a delight and surprise it was. How strangely the three parts seemed to synch together with some strange kind of instinctual reason. Here was a hybrid creature that embodied a sense of Pan, like some mysterious and playful archetype from Nature.

When you break out of your comfort zone, you break free.

Exquisite Corpse Sneak Peek No. 4

A quick update from the last post: Australian artists Adriane Strampp, Irene Wellm, and Kirsten Perry have unveiled their exquisite corpse!

Image courtesy of Adriane Strampp, 2011.

The moment of unmasking marked the first time all three artists—like the rest of us—saw the finished piece in its entirety. Here are detailed shots of each artist’s segment before the revelation, after the jump:

Fragments and Fawning

Are all my posts from now on going to be divided between previewing Exquisite Corpse and praising Peru? Probably.

No, not really.

OK, one more.

Maybe.

The studio and home of Exquisite Corpse artist Adriane Strampp have just been featured in The Design Files. Take a look and get inspired.

Adriane and fellow Melbourne-based artists Irene Wellm and Kirsten Perry have been collaborating in the traditional exquisite corpse fashion, choosing to not reveal their piece until the very end.

Image courtesy of Adriane Strampp, 2011.

Speaking of tradition, in the last post, I mentioned how Peru embraces a mix of the old and the new. This synthesis, in keeping with the multilingual, multiethnic identity, can be seen and experienced throughout the country, from solar panels on the Uros Islands—man-made islands, made completely of reeds, floating on Lake Titicaca as they have for hundreds of years—to flatscreen monitors at the Museo de Arte de Lima that flip through artists’ sketchbooks; museumgoers can thus view each page without having to handle the original, physical items, which are displayed in adjacent glass cases. And—what were the odds—I stumbled upon an exquisite corpse reference at the museum’s Szyszlo retrospective. Photos after the jump.

Viva

First, another Exquisite Corpse sneak peek. Here’s a wonderful work in progress by Brittany Majka and Carrie McGath, to be added to by Jennifer Moore (check out another WIP by this artist group in the previous post):

Image courtesy of Carrie McGath, 2011.

On to Peru. It was and is, quite simply, beautiful.

Heaving microbuses blasting reggaeton and bearing Hanzi on windows foggy from the passengers packed inside hurtle through congested streets checkered with chifas on every block. Incense burns and yellow confetti powders shaded arcades in celebration of Pago a la tierra—the Andean New Year—paying tribute to the goddess Pachamama, while Catholic cathedrals loom over colonial plazas. Quechua and Aymara women wearing English bowler hats paired with long braids and layered petticoats share sidewalks with youth in leather bomber jackets and heavy boots. It’s a place of multiculturalism, of tradition and technology, of old and new, of East and West and… Far West.

A barrage of photos after the jump.

Sneak Peek: Exquisite Corpse

I am back from Peru—stay tuned for a photo post. In the meantime, here’s a quick Exquisite Corpse sneak peek.

A work in progress by Carrie McGath and Jennifer Moore (check out Jennifer’s blog post about it here), to be added to by Brittany Majka:

Image courtesy of Jennifer Moore, 2011.

A work in progress by Nicole Syrquin and Peggy Shearn:

Image courtesy of Peggy Shearn, 2011.

There are over 40 artists participating in this show. Keep checking back for more.