Exquisite Corpse
What is an Exquisite Corpse? Taken literally, it's a beautiful dead body. Taken artistically, it's a game poets and artists play to create surprising and unusual works of art. This lesson explores the origins and rules of the Exquisite Corpse.
Surrealism
When you wake up in the morning, do you remember what you dreamed about? You may be able to clearly recall everything in great detail. Other mornings, you may be left with a fragment of a dream or a distinct feeling or sense. These bits and pieces come from your subconscious, the part of your mind that operates just below the surface of your conscious thoughts (what you're actively thinking about right now).
At the beginning of the 20th century, psychology was really taking off in Europe. Men like Sigmund Freud explored the subconscious thoughts of their patients, encouraging them to make free associations; whatever popped into their head, they spoke out loud. This freedom of thought and expression gave way to a new artistic movement called surrealism. At first, surrealism was limited to writing. Poets and authors explored their subconscious and translated these unrestricted thoughts into their work. Eventually, surrealism spread into visual arts as well, like painting, drawing, and sculpture.
The Exquisite Corpse
To encourage and inspire each other, surrealists worked together to create unpredictable and unexpected art. One of the ways they did this was by playing a game called the Exquisite Corpse. It started out as a game to create whimsical poetry, but expanded to include visual arts over time.
You're probably wondering, why would anyone name a poetry or art game after a beautiful dead body? The name of the game actually comes from a line of surrealist poetry, 'Le cadaver exquis boira le vin nouveau'...in English, that means, 'The exquisite corpse will drink the young wine.'
Creating Poetry
The Exquisite Corpse game has one important rule: NO PEEKING! To start the game, players determine what types of words will make up each line of poetry. For example, each line may have to follow the pattern:
Adverb - Verb - Adjective - Noun
After players agree on the poem's structure, Player 1 writes a single word on a piece of paper, then hides it so none of the other players can see it. Player 2 adds their own word to the paper, and hides it as well. These steps are repeated until all players have taken a turn and the poem is completed. An Exquisite Corpse poem would look something like the example below:
Slowly munching the salty worm
Eerily bathing spooky clowns
Sweetly sweeping the mahogany toad
Creating Artwork
To create an exquisite corpse artwork, 3 players will take turns drawing a part of a body (legs, torso, head) without looking at the drawings that were completed beforehand.
Player 1 would draw the feet of the body then fold the paper back
Player 2 would draw the torso of the body WITHOUT looking at the feet, then fold their piece back.
Player 3 will draw a head WITHOUT looking at the other two drawings.
After player 3 completes his/her drawing they may open the drawing to reveal the group's
"Exquisite Corpse"
Concrete Poetry
Concrete, pattern, or shape poetry is an arrangement of linguistic elements in which the typographical effect is more important in conveying meaning than verbal significance. It is sometimes referred to as visual poetry, a term that has now developed a distinct meaning of its own. As such, concrete poetry relates more to the visual than to the verbal arts and there is a considerable overlap in the kind of product to which it refers. Historically, however, concrete poetry has developed from a long tradition of shaped poems in which the words are arranged in such a way as to depict their subject. Despite such blurring of artistic boundaries, concrete poetry can be viewed as taking its place in a predominantly visual tradition stretching over more than two millennia that seeks to draw attention to the word in the space of the page, and to the spaces between words, as an aid to emphasising their significance.
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| "Wings" 1640 Reprint Written by Simmias of Rhodes around/before 300 BC. |
Headline Poetry
Inspired by the early 20th century Dada-ist Poet, Tristan Tzara, headline poetry is created in a "ransom note" style using words and letters cut out from different magazine and newspaper headlines.
Create a headline poem from the magazines and newspapers in class.
Your poem must include at least 30 words.
1. When you finish cutting out a word, put it in your envelope and
write the word on the outside of your envelope. This will let you
keep track of all the words you have.
2. Cut out more than 25 words in case some of your words don’t
work in the poem.
3. Don’t paste any words to your paper until you have laid them all
out and
are happy with the final product.
4. Make sure you write your name on the back of the paper.
