Exquisite Cadavers and Monstrous Constructions
The exhibition Exquisite Cadavers and Monstrous Constructions was designed in celebration of the 150th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein. The exhibition was a collaborative project that began with Professor of English Jim Armstrong’s class writing poems inspired by Shelley’s novel or other monster-related subject matter. Studio Art and Art Education majors were then each assigned a poem to respond to with a piece of visual art. Finally, those works of visual art were provided to Winona Community poets to respond to, bringing the project full circle. This format is (loosely) inspired by the Surrealist tradition of the exquisite corpse or exquisite cadaver, a parlor game invented around 1918.
In addition to these exquisite cadaver works, a sculpture class contributed ceramic monsters that celebrated the novel and realized students’ imaginations at in all their pulpy goriness.