2 of ∞
I first saw this idea as an Art Spiegelman project involving multiple cartoonists and a stick man, this game followed a chain of 3 panel comics passed artist to artist. Each artist was sent the previous artist’s panels and had to continue the story while retaining the stick man throughout the narrative.
For this version, I allowed the artist to view only the final panel from the previous artist. I wanted a more open format, so each artist could design their own panel configuration and they could do what they please as far as content. I felt this followed closer to the idea of the surrealist game of Exquisite Corpse.
1 of ∞
Another drawing game attempted at a Drink and Draw session at friends’ place. Introduced to me under the title “Ching Chong Bing Bong,” feel free to call it what you want as some think this title appears suggestively racist.
Everybody starts by writing a phrase on the top sheet of a stack of paper and then passing the entire stack including the phrase to the person on their right. Everyone reads the received phrase and puts that sheet on the bottom of the stack. On the blank sheet in from to you draw a picture responding to the phrase. Pass right and write a phrase responding to the picture. Pass right and repeat. Hardest part of this game is giving a group of people directions. Read the following left to right top to bottom.
Andre Breton described surrealism as “pure psychic automatism.” It began in reference to writing and is served as a basis to the movement. Breton with Phillippe Soupault wrote the first automatic book, Les Champs Magnetiques, and The Automatic Message was one of Breton’s theoretical works about automatism. Interesting post on the Automatic Message on Ars Poetica #3: André Breton’s The Automatic Message. As mentioned in a previous post, automatism was central to Paul-Emile Borduas and the Automatistes. Though the process began as writing it is drawing and the shift to painting that interests me the most. Andre Masson was one of the pioneers of automatic drawing with Jean Arp and Joan Miro working it into their practice. These two are the artists I associate more with the foundations of surrealism. Dali and Breton also were known to work through automatic drawing, but the surrealism of Dali who most associate the movement is of less interest to me and takes the movement in a different direction. Automatic writing has been helpful to me as writing is where I most struggle. As you can likely tell from the copy on this blog writing is not a strong suit, so simply putting words on paper has made me more comfortable (though not necessarily better) in my writing. Rereading the words also ignites my interest in language and wordplay. This is perhaps a lead in for a series of posts on this blog as well. Drawing is where I find my art practice returning to often and I tend to straddle the line between pure automatism (reflected in Masson’s drawing above) and wandering into conscious representational imagery. Something like this automatic drawing by Jean Arp.
- The Beautiful Bird Revealing the Unknown to a Pair of Lovers, 1941
Two examples of Joan Miro’s work related to Automatism. Painted years apart the paintings show a shift in automatic drawing to more representational forms. The earlier work, as noted in my last post regarding the Automatistes, is closer to the idea of the unguided hand being let lose on the surface. Elements of automatism are at work in much of Miro’s practice. The Beautiful Bird Revealing the Unknown to a Pair of Lovers brings together automatic drawing with representational imagery and content. The work was done while Miro was in Spain while experiencing the terrors of the Spanish Civil War.
office of surrealist investigations 