Workshop: Exquisite Corpse

Free Work­shop – Kids and Fam­i­ly Friend­ly
Lim­it­ed space avail­able, RSVP required

For this work­shop, 2025 Res­i­den­cy Unlim­it­ed (RU) alum Dana Nech­mad will expand upon the col­lec­tive artist book project ​“Bod­ies in Tran­sit” that she cre­at­ed ear­li­er this year. Aligned with the Sur­re­al­ist Exquis­ite Corpse’s method­ol­o­gy where play­ers con­tribute a piece with­out see­ing each other’s work, Dana invit­ed fel­low artists at RU to con­tribute their own inter­pre­ta­tions to a note­book divid­ed into three main parts ‑head, body, and feet- allow­ing them to con­nect and respond to one anoth­er visually.

In this work­shop, Dana invites par­tic­i­pants to cre­ate their own ver­sions of Exquis­ite Corpse while inter­act­ing and col­lab­o­rat­ing on a draw­ing togeth­er. The start­ing point for this exper­i­men­tal artis­tic game will be the body as a con­stant­ly chang­ing force. Each par­tic­i­pant will cre­ate their own unique ​“body” — a visu­al com­po­si­tion fea­tur­ing sur­pris­ing and fan­tas­ti­cal fea­tures — using col­lab­o­ra­tive draw­ing, col­lage, and text. The process will empha­size per­son­al expres­sion and humor while fos­ter­ing a sense of shared transformation.Throughout the ses­sion, we will con­sid­er the broad­er con­text of change — both phys­i­cal­ly and men­tal­ly — reflect­ing on the ongo­ing glob­al flux we all expe­ri­ence. We will also revis­it exam­ples from art his­to­ry of artists that have used this method to expand their cre­ativ­i­ty and imagination.

This com­mu­ni­ty-build­ing work­shop is open to cre­ators of all ages, and you will team up to cre­ate sur­pris­ing and bizarre visu­al com­po­si­tions that will delight and inspire. A PDF ver­sion of the final result will be made avail­able to all participants.

RU is one of the 2025 Gov­er­nors Island Arts Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence.