exquisite corpse
collectively assembled: heads, bodies, fins and claws
cadavre exquis from the Salish Sea
Local visual artist, Suzanne Morlock, conceived of an exhibition that draws in many artists and invites them to play the old surrealist game Exquisite Corpse (Cadaver Exquis). Using segments head, body, and legs and feet, pieces of paper will be distributed to players with a labeled section and the name of a Salish Sea creature.
Returned drawings will be assembled with hilarious/curious/spectacular results. This is designed to be a fun, quick and clever use of your creative skills. A celebration of the Salish Sea.
The exhibition in the Allied Arts Gallery will be in July 2026. An additional venue for collectively assembled will be the Cordata Gallery August – October 2026 in celebration of SeaFeast’s Ten Year Anniversary! Drawings will be available for sale to art patrons as a fundraiser for Allied Arts.
Basic instructions, a drawing tool and due date will be handed out when you come to pick up your 18”x24” paper for your drawing! What kinds of Salish Sea creatures will we see? No fees sought from participating artists. Flexible time frames between December and April. No experience required, just a willingness to have fun while you bypass your thinking mind and make some art! We look forward to playing with you!
More about the history of the game:
Surrealists played the game Exquisite Corpse to stimulate creativity through collaboration. Players would contribute to a drawing of a figure without seeing what the others had done. Like a game of Telephone, the figure would become stranger with each player’s addition. The name Exquisite Corpse came from a version in which each contributor added a word without knowing the ones that came before, resulting in the bizarre phrase, “The exquisite corpse will drink the new wine.”
Cadavre exquis is similar to the old parlour game consequences – in which players write in turn on a sheet of paper, fold to conceal what they have written, and pass it on to the next player – but adapted so that parts of the body are drawn instead.
It was invented in 1925 in Paris by the surrealists Yves Tanguy, Jacques Prévert, André Breton and Marcel Duchamp. The name ‘cadavre exquis’ was derived from a phrase that resulted when they first played the game, ‘le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau’ (‘the exquisite corpse will drink the new wine’).
Cadavre exquis as a drawing approach has been used by other artists since the surrealists notably the YBA artists Jake and Dinos Chapman. How do you bypass your thinking mind to make art?