Dear Readers,

In May 2021, The Art Section published an online exhibition of the Exquisite Corpse, nine bodies created collaboratively by 28 artists from around the globe who created body parts that were combined digitally. The results were unexpected, striking, and provocative. This online exhibition was a way for artists to collaborate during the pandemic, to think about the body, and to recall the Surrealists who invented this collaborative endeavor almost 100 years ago.

Although the pandemic has subsided, it continues, and TAS is presenting a second edition of the exhibition as the Exquisite Corpse II. In this exhibition are eleven corpses by 33 artists. The random nature of this surrealist game has led to collages of body parts and conceptions. Art historian Elliott King, a Dali and Surrealism scholar, has written a text about the surrealist game for TAS. Although the surrealist manifesto is now almost 100 years old, it still has meaning for artists and viewers. The process has changed. Now, the collaboration is digital and the artists are not all in the same place, as they were for the surrealist parlor game. One artist, Thomas Eller, has included his genome, another at my instigation has made a gif that moves and changes. The works are as diverse and wonderful as the artists, and I am grateful to all.

In 2022, Andrei Codrescu and Opal Moore dialogued about Codrescu’s poems and his life as an artist. Their ensuing dialogue was simultaneously funny and poignant. Codrescu has recently published a collaborative epic poem with Vincent Katz, who joins this new conversation on caring for their mothers during the pandemic. The subject of “care” is significant at this moment in time, and two parts of the poem are presented by TAS as read by Codrescu and Katz. Hearing their voices gives the reader a significant additional understanding of their work.

Melissa Fay Greene has written seven non-fiction books and countless articles for publications such as The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, New York Magazine, Newsweek, Life Magazine, Good Housekeeping, The Atlantic, Reader's Digest, The Wilson Quarterly, Redbook, MS Magazine, CNN.com and Salon.com, on subjects ranging from adoption to a mining disaster in Springhill, Nova Scotia. I myself understood the South in a new way after reading two of her books when I first moved to Atlanta (The Temple Bombing and Praying for Sheetrock). Robert Stalker’s excellent dialogue with Greene touches on the life and work of a non-fiction writer living in Georgia.

As we near the end of 2023, below are the articles published in TAS this year. All are linked to the articles.

Many thanks to all the artists and writers,

Deanna

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Deanna Sirlin

Editor-in-Chief

The Art Section