PROOF: Exquisite Corpse 1996

12.24.2009

Exquisite Corpse
1996

We all know what Exquisite Corpse is, right?

It's that crazy drawing game that the surrealists invented where two or more artists participate and what you do is you fold a piece of paper in thirds and each artist draws a section of this fictitious and, usually, wildly imaginary character or "body" or "corpse". The first artist does the "head", the next one does the "torso", and the last guy does the "legs"... or if there are only two of you, as with all of these, then you just switch off, being sure not to let the other guy see what you've drawn, except for little marks that indicate to the next guy where to start his figure... or whatever crazy thing he feels like adding.

This is always entertaining for the participants inasmuch as the results are a guarantee of a fun surprise and often tacit connections are made that, I have to say, can be just, plain eerie. I don't know if it's proof of unconscious communication or anything, but it can really feel like that at the time.

Right. So, for the last 25 or so years, I've been doing these with my art-buddies and pretty much anyone who is willing to have a go. Fact is, they're great lull-killers and, if you are an artist, really good for honing quick-response creativity and basic drawing skills.

These all were drawn with my very bestest friends from art school: Edward Pollard, David Bornstein and Daniel Brack. I remember the ones here with Dan were done in my crappy San Francisco basement apartment at Bush and Jones, shortly before he succumbed to years of struggle with heroin addiction. And then the ones with David were done a couple months later in our rather swank apartment on Cochran off of Wilshire in Los Angeles, where he, too, overdosed and died on New Year's Eve of 1996/97. The ones with Ed I'm not sure about, but, luckily for us all, he is still alive! So, who knows, maybe he remembers.

Anyway, I love and miss all the three of you. Hope you can enjoy these for the second time, either from here or the next world.