Exquisite Corpse: Ted Joans (2019)

Overview

David Hammons interrogates the political and social landscape of the United States through its material remnants. Exquisite Corpse: Ted Joans (2019), a video work, centres the poet Ted Joans’ 25-year project Long Distance Exquisite Corpse (1976-2001) that involved 132 artists and literati folding a sheet of paper accordion- style and, one by one, creating drawings that connected across the creases. Hammons’s work reflects on the creative and personal histories of the vast contributor list, including Shel Silverstein, Allen Ginsberg and Romare Bearde, and includes footage of Joans himself unfolding the long artwork in 2001. Emphasising the work’s physicality, the artist filmed the piece fold to fold, allowing viewers to follow this trans-spatial treasure map of friendship.