Three artists unveil their "Exquisite Corpse"
BY MARLI GUZZETTA
If the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, the parts may also become better from the whole. That was the impetus behind a collaborative work by three area artists - Maureen O'Sullivan, Sue Riddle and Nell Van Vorst.

To catalyze their creative juices, the three friends organized a game of Cadavre Exquis, or "Exquisite Corpse." Played originally by the Surrealists as a way to explore the patterns and metaphors that arise through chance and to liberate the subconscious, Cadavre Exquis requires that each person contribute a separate section to a body then conceal it before passing the body off to the next participant. Only when every artist has contributed her part can the whole body be revealed - in this case, at the Artists Association of Nantucket this Friday.

"That format gave us a lot of freedom," said Riddle, who works in mixed media. "The cadaver idea ended up being a skeleton - a skeleton we could all hang our ideas on."

The fleshing out of a group project was rejuvenating for the artists as well.

"Being artists, we're often so solitary in the studio," O'Sullivan said. "We wanted to get together to share ideas and inspiration."

Van Vorst said the game keeps the mind "flexible." "It shakes you out of your habitual way of working," she said. "We all have been to art school and we hated those projects with prompts, but it's fun when you do it with your friends."

Van Vorst often works in ceramics and circular frames, which she thinks of as "portholes to little views of objects and ceramics, some painted and some found." But with this show, she experimented in oils - O'Sullivan's primary medium.

In addition to the collaborative bodies, the women also created pieces inspired by circles and other pieces inspired by words O'Sullivan chose randomly from the dictionary, like "farthingale" - "a support, such as a hoop, worn beneath a skirt to extend it horizontally from the waist, used by European women in the 16th and 17th centuries," according to Dictionary.com.

The find was oddly parallel to an image O'Sullivan had already been studying in one of the many astronomical charts and graphs she often uses for inspiration. Before O'Sullivan had flipped to "farthingale," she'd noted that a particular drawing of a black hole looked something like an oldfashioned bodice.

To see the artists' collective "body" of work unveiled, you have to go to the opening. Until then, from the top: TK by Maureen O'Sullivan, "7a" (oil on ceramic) by Nell Van Vorst and "Morning my Place" (oil)" by Sue Riddle.

"They give you these little drawings next to the word, and there was this little, tiny lady with this tiny waist and big skirt, and my black hole just fit," O'Sullivan said. "I thought that was so fortuitous."

"Maybe you can call it coincidence, but I think that's weak," explained Van Vorst of the game. "Maybe it's tapping into some kind of collective unconscious. ...Because of the way our brains work, a poem emerges or a theme or a story. It grasps to make sense out of something that's not sense. Cadavre Exquis is based on what seemingly random process leads you to something that is not random."

Van Vorst believes that Cadavre Exquis is a metaphor for collective perception. "Everything you do in a way is a collage of what's around us," she said. "As an artist, you filter it and reuse it. "

"People feel guarded about what they're working on a lot of times, but not here," Riddle said. "Once again, I think it has to do with our being friends and being comfortable with each other as artists."

The women did not execute this project with commercial success in mind, according to van Vorst. "The stuff that we're all working on is fresh and interesting, and hopefully will get people excited about looking at something different," she said. "I very much like realist work, but there are no sailboats in this show."

Van Vorst added that the process of hanging and arranging the show will be a form of Cadavre Exquis, because each of the women will be bringing pieces the others have not seen.

"It's fun to have that mystery," she said. "The biggest part of all this is that it's fun."

I AAN EXHIBITION TEN
When: Friday, Sept. 22, 6 - 8 p.m.
Where: AAN Gallery, 19 Washington St.
Cost: Free
For more information, call 228-0294.