The exhibition!

PRESS RELEASE

The Third Annual Exquisite Corpse Exhibition plus Day of the Dead Altars.

What: Art Exhibition

When: Opening Reception November 1^st, All Saints Day

Time:  5:00PM until 8:00 PM.

The show will be up through the weekend: Nov 2^nd to Nov 4^th, 10:00AM 4:00PM.

Where: Ramona Town Hall.

729 Main Street, Ramona, CA 92065

Come dressed as your favorite dead person (famous or not!)

Information Contact: Helen Wilson, studio@helenwilsonartist

For the fourth year artist Helen Wilson invited the artist’s group Tuesday Nights to play the game "Exquisite Corpse." This is a game by which a collection of images is assembled by the group to form bodies. The game was invented by the Surrealists; and earned its name from one of the initial writings, "Le cadavre / exquis / boira / le vin / nouveau" (The exquisite corpse will drink the young wine). It is the perfect game for creating Art for a Halloween Exhibition.

            This group plays the game with a bit of a twist. The body is broken into proportionally correct sheets of paper. Then they all draw, one body part at a time. The results are then put on the floor where each of the artists chose a body, one part at a time. Traditionally this is where the game ends a body created by multiple artists, but this is where they really change the game; everyone goes home with his or her body and they agreed to reassemble for the exhibition. Once home, their body was the inspiration for a piece of art. Materials where completely open-ended. The only obligation was to their art and to keep the sense of play - after all it is a game. No one has seen all the finished work.

            In the mean time in October the group started a new project, constructing Dia de los Muertos Altars. More than 500 years ago, when the Spanish Conquistadors landed in what is now Mexico, they encountered natives practicing a ritual that seemed to mock death. It was a ritual the indigenous people had been practicing for at least 3,000 years, a ritual known today as Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. In the United States and in Mexico, families build altars in their homes or at the cemetery dedicating them to the relatives who have passed. They surround these altars with flowers, food and pictures of the deceased. They light candles and place them next to the altar. In some homes the altar is not only dedicated to friends and family members who have died, but to others as well. These festivities show that syncretism is particularly important in cultural expressions like theology, mythology, and the representational arts, all of which are present in the contemporary diversity of Día de los Muertos. This year the group will be building artistic altars to patron Saints real or imagined. The only rule was that the cause that the saint assisted with needed to be important to the Artist.

The artists include Antonia Cosentino, Nancy Ferguson, Karen James, Bob Norman, Tracy Potter, Kathi Rothe, Paula Riddle, Lark Burkhart, Marsha Cook, Nancy Winslow, John Gardener, Annie Marie, Heidi Schlotfeldt, Kathleen Beck, Jim Lydick, Cindy Dodson, Lyn Hawkins, Pamela Underwood, Julie Weaver, Susie Amundson and Helen Wilson. The group has painters, sculptors, quilters, assemblage artists, and mixed media artists - so the show is sure to be interesting.

            All the artists are part of a class/group called Tuesday Nights facilitated by Helen Wilson, which meets once a month (sometimes more.) Each meeting is built around one project idea, which culminates in an exhibition but mostly it is a way to advance creative skills.

                        The goals are the building of an art community through exhibitions and socialization with other artists (There is something to be said about breathing the air of other creative souls); learning to critique your own and others’ work effectively and developing technical proficiency in a variety of media and/or methods, by planning, designing and completing projects. (It is about developing artistic energy through sharing with a larger community. Think of it as A Happening.)

That is what will be happening on Nov 1^st, an exhibition and a lot of fun. It’s open to the public, so come dressed as your favorite dead person, famous or not.  The reception Nov 1^st, 5:00PM until 8:00PM at Ramona Town Hall on Main.