art&culture
By Jen Wead
The Exquisite Corpse Games is based on a nearly
hundred year old tradition, in which collection of words
and/or images are collectively assembled. “Each collaborator
adds to a composition in sequence, either by
following a rule or by being allowed to see only the end
of what the previous person contributed,” according to
the Wikipedia definition. There have been many games
fashioned after the original method, most recently, The Exquisite
Corpse Games (ECG2019) of St. Petersburg had
their unveiling on November 14th.
Ann Marie Cash is in her third year as Gamekeeper
of ECG. Her motto is, “Just have fun,” and she has
worked hard to keep that balance in the game. Although
ECG2019 has been the subject of controversy, what
we witnessed at the event was a room full of artists and
friends who adored Cash and were excited and thrilled
to be there. The Gamekeeper hand chose 64 artists in a
variety of mediums that she considered to be talented and
established in their industry. The categories were Painting,
Photography, Sculpture, Poetry, Music, and Filmmaking.
Each artist is blindly paired with two others in the category,
They are assigned head, body and feet, which can be
interpreted any way they would like and the completed
pieces are first unveiled at the main event and then tour
various galleries and venues after.
Poets heard the other two parts of their piece right
along with the audience and it was incredible how the
words fit together so fluidly. It was emotional and delightful
to witness each artist experience the completed collaborations.
With every seat taken, many more standing,
it was astonishing how patient each person was, just genuinely
grateful to be a part of something so exceptional
and rare. The musical collaboration was so commanding
that it brought tears to many eyes. In short, there aren’t
many opportunities where you can be so completely submerged
in so much talent at one time. Exquisite Corpse
Games of St Pete was that opportunity and more.
To read more about the event and the artists that
participated, as well as view the completed works, check
out their website www.exquisitecorpsegames.com and
facebook page https://www.facebook.com/exquisitecorpseGames
FLORIDA WOMEN MAGAZINE 813.682.9364 DECEMBER 2019 • 13
/www.exquisitecorpsegames.com