Monday, May 11, 2015

Exquisite Corpse

The Exquisite Corpse is a drawing game invented by the Surrealists.  Surrealist artwork is often considered very strange since they try to use their dreams and unconscious minds as inspiration for their art. The exquisite corpse was a game of chance and unpredictable happenings.  It was played by several people.  Each would write a word or phrase on a
piece of paper, fold it to hide part of it, and then pass it on to the next player.  At the end, the paper was unfolded and the surrealists read the results.  Many times it wouldn't make sense but often words would be put together in interesting ways no one would have thought of had it been written the regular way.  The first time the game was played the sentence they ended up with was, "The Exquisite Corpse will drink the new wine"  (which is why we call it Exquisite Corpse).  They also tried this as a drawing game where one person would draw the head, the next a body and last, the feet.  Second grade students created their own version of the exquisite corpse!  Each portrait changes into an unexpected picture as you fold down the different flaps...for example you might have the body of spider-man but the legs of a horse!

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