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A Game of Chance: THE EXQUISITE CORPSE

ArtBeat 2020 Chance artwork by Paula Champagne

A Game of Chance: THE EXQUISITE CORPSE


Friday, July 10 12:00 AM


Somerville

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Inside Out Gallery, CVS windows, Davis Square; through July 21

Stephanie Vecellio and Kathryn Geismar, two SAC grant recipients, created this exhibit playing on the Chance theme and using a method called the exquisite corpse, a technique invented by surrealists in the early 1900s. In a traditional setting, one person draws a head, folds the paper, the next artist draws a body, repeats the fold, and a third draws the legs/feet. The paper is unfolded and the whole body is revealed.

Twenty-four Somerville artists volunteered. Each artist was randomly assigned a body part to draw without seeing the other parts. The organizing artists delivered drawing kits, containing only markers, a pencil, and bristol board, to each artist’s home.The project began just before the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic and subsequent quarantine, and was shaped by the events in which it unfolded. Once all the drawing were collected, they were combined to become complete bodies, created by...chance.