Exquisite Corpse

Exquisite Corpse is a game in which each person takes a turn at drawing or writing on a piece of paper before folding it to cover their contribution, it is then handed to the next collaborator to complete their addition. It became popular in the 1920s where it was used by artists from the Surrealist Movement to create collaborative compositions.

Inspired by this method Jaap & Luke set about creating their own photographic surrealist game using their own body parts (body, legs, head and feet) while also inventing obscure titles for the characters that evolved.

Although originally the pair had planned to work together on this project in real life, Covid 19 had other ideas. With both photographers based in different cities (Amsterdam and London) the project became a natural correspondence between the pair as a result of the global pandemic. Over the course of two years Luke and Jaap became surrealist pen

pals – sharing body parts back and forth, constructing weird and wonderful creations.

Combined together in a flip book and a interactive website the vast number of possible variations is mind blowing, resulting in 65,536 different character combinations