A Quiet Moment Amongst Friends

Osama Bin Laden's Corpse

On Monday, my friend Seth L and I made these two exquisite corpse drawings while we watched the news coverage of Osama Bin Laden's death. 

An Exquisite Drawing Amongst Siblings: Part II

Two exquisite corpse drawings, 10 x 15 inches, ink on paper, 2010

 

 

My sister, Anna U, and I completed these exquisite corpse drawings during my recent visit to Portland. Similar to our previous endeavor, we worked on the drawings at our parent's house while we watched a random movie on cable ("Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here" on AMC).   

If you aren't familiar with the exquisite corpse process, it involves dividing a piece of paper into four sections, making a drawing on one section, folding over the drawing to hide it, and then passing it to your partner with the very bottom of the initial drawing exposed. 

While the process was haphazard, strange synchronicities occurred and both drawings ended up telling interesting stories. In the first drawing, a lizard contemplates how it evolved from ants. In the second drawing (which is best understood by starting at the bottom and reading up), a rodent embarks on a perilous journey through a snake's digestive system. Along the way, the rodent meets a human who shares a similar tale about being eaten by a city.

Drawings About the 2009 Academy Awards

Drawings, exquisite corpse, pencil on paper, 10" x 13", 2009

 

Last Saturday, Seth L and I put our heads together to honor the best films of 2008 with an exquisite corpse drawing. 

Here's the story arc: 

The newborn, crotchety Benjamin Button gets sucked into the mechanical claws of Wall*E. Wall*E then melts into Randy the Ram while Eva the sexy robot melts into the Ram's fist as it punches a meat slicer. Randy's legs and blood melt into Anne Hathaway and a priest in Rachel Getting Married. Skip a frame, and a French guy walks a tightrope across the Twin Towers while a cop goes nuts. The tightrope walker's leg fades into the actual Batman bat, which fades into an intense, muscular, and oiled Randy the Ram, which fades into the big ticket, the one and only, Mr. Oscar. And that's a wrap!  

Coincidentally, the next night, the theme of this drawing was touched on by the musician from Slumdog Millionaire in his acceptance speech when he said, we have "a choice between hate or love. I choose love." Except this drawing doesn't make any choices between the two and it's very unclear where hate stops and love starts. 

Seth L is a wicked good doodler. He was also generous enough to let me crash at his pad in Queens. What a guy!  

An Exquisite Drawing Amongst Siblings

9" x 9", 15" x 9", pencil and colored pencil on paper, 2009

On the Saturday following New Years, John U and his sister Anna U met at their childhood home in Troutdale, Oregon and collaborated on an exquisite corpse drawing project. These two drawings were completed over the course of two hours while the siblings drank hot buttered rum and watched the movie "Murderball" on Comcast On-Demand cable.

Editor's note: Portions of the drawings were deleted due to scanning limitations. The partial frame in the center of the drawing doesn't show a little baby dragon and two dinosaurs having a conversation about a sandwich. Also, one of the frames was removed because Anna U drew something that made no sense. 

Update: Here's how it works: you fold the paper so that you don't ever see what the other person has drawn.