Held in the gallery bar of the Oxford Art Factory, Exquisite Corpse started out as a weekly event combining performance art, live music, DJs and projected visuals, and quickly built a following due to the (mostly) good music, free entry and confronting spectacles offered on display.

James himself is a raging workaholic and a large part of why the night has experienced such success. He runs Exquisite Corspe, handling everything from the music to the flyer art, as well as booking for Oxford Art Factory and working on other projects like Siberian Nights. However when I mention his inhuman workload to him he shrugs it off.

“Adding promotion to the role of booking/organising sometimes come at a strain but it can be simpler to look after the majority of the workload yourself,” he laughs.

Concerns for his health, hygiene and sanity aside, all his work has paid off with the night now old enough to… well, wet itself and say dada. With a whole year behind him I ask James about some of his more memorable moments as organiser of EC.

“My first performance at Oxford Art Factory, in April 2008 was quite memorable,” he begins. “Aside from the intentions and the more conceptual points involved in that performance, in regards to being most memorable it helped l was stark naked. Despite covering the outside of the cube in wrapping paper l was quickly exposed to the entire club, two nights in a row actually, and soon after it landed me a job booking bands.”

But nudity-inspired job offers and mass litter aside, EC is not all about the art. The music and often the musicians themselves put on quite a show for the punters, some artistic, others hedonistic and some full blown satanic.

“After the Warhorse riot in November last year; l’d have to say another significantly memorable evening would have to be the Taipan, Chemical Deth, Nigga Faggot Jesus Band show in January this year. Chemical Deth supplied the night with a collection of utterly horrific visuals, hurled animal entrails all over the audience and had an enormous weightlifter pumping iron in amongst the band as they played; no one was left unimpressed and that was before a pentecostal exorcism went down in the cube.”

Art and music aside what Exquisite Corpse is really about and what all good events should be about, is having fun and involving the audience. In a city where art can be considered by some to be a dirty word, the need to find a middle ground where people who may be a little less artistic can enjoy the performances is tantamount.

“It’s worth remembering by placing art and performance in a busy, thriving, energetic nightclub environment the performances then that may be dubbed ’silly’ generally do succeed in prompting a good reaction from the audience; absurdism is very important in winning over a nightclub crowd via performance. The ’silly’ performances often excite and disgust; there has to be an element of humour a lot of the time.”

My personal favourite such event was when one night I saw a man piss on a woman in the cube. I’m not a pervert, I just respect people with the courage to do something like that in public.

“The audience certainly got a kick out of that,” James reminisces with me. “They so often do with the illustrious ‘SandS through the hourglass’ duo.. hmm it reminds me l need to speak to Lucas Abela; he’d be great and just as poignant performing on the floor space or in the cube!

Well public urination, exorcism, nudity, gift wrapping and entrails has led us all to Thursday July 30th, The Exqusite Corpse 1st Birthday Extravaganza, an event which promises to deliver a mix of hedonism, music and art so potent and spicy that Dionysus himself would not be able to sip from it,
his stomach lining having deteriorated over an eternity of alcoholism and eating rich food.

“Yep lots on for the Exquisite Corpse 1st Birthday,” James answers brightly in a somewhat disturbing way almost as if he had been sleep taught the information. “We’ve got a very special Limited Edition Exquisite Corpse compilation featuring tracks and collaborations between all the bands on the bill; i like cats, Ghoul and Danimals. Liam O’Donnell will be hosting the The First Annual Handball Handslam, and Joel Burrows will be presenting two short films; Aquarium and Short Thread Count. The night’s festivities will be intertwined with DJ sets by Tron 5, Gibbon Ranks, The Wog Jesus, and Leon Specs.”

So fang yourself a danga and get ready to party like it’s Thursday July 30th, because it will be, bitches.

Well here it is a whole week late, and with half the stories we hoped to have in here. Don’t you just love weed? We obviously do too much.

But anyway I digress.

It gives me a great and unfathomably perverted pleasure to celebrate Exquisite Corpse’s 1st Birthday with this special issue dedicated to recognising the night’s passage from an uncontrollable crying, shitting and vomiting infant into the spectacular drooling toddler it is today, or depending on when you are reading this, will be by the 30th of July.

In recognition of us recognising the event I talk to EC main man James Shirlaw about everything from pentecostal exorcisms and animal entrails to naked men gift wrapped in glass boxes and Kandinsky’s obsession with returning to the womb.

We’ve also got interviews with i like cats, Ghoul, Danimals, The Fumes, The Ray Mann Three, The Paper Scissors, The Bedroom Philosopher, Unkle Ho and Clutch.

We’re sorry this was so late, but keep an eye out for forthcoming interviews with Michael Rother, GZA/Genius, The Black Ryder and many more to come.

Mikey

Music Feeds, but not as well as food does

Showcasing some of Sydney’s most promising, upcoming music acts, DJs, filmmakers and a very avant-garde calibre of young artists and performers Exquisite Corpse have made it clear that their ‘Dada’ influence is more than just referential. Every Thursday night Exquisite Corpse promises to deliver a new kind of experience, placing emphasis on the correlation between the music, the visuals and the performance; an elopement of the senses that goes beyond the bereft yet character forming art school days of booze, cigs and social climbing.
So far the night has proved to be a success amongst the culturally anorexic and this is due in part to the necessity of the concept and also because of the dynamic trio behind the operation, James Shirlaw, Robyn Wilson and Yuri Nezovic. Such is the success of the night that Exquisite Corpse were invited to contribute to the Art & About Festival, which involved hosting a variety of unusual, daring and progressive performance pieces at the aptly named ‘Little Oafy’ venue (a vacant shopfront on Oxford St just up from the Oxford Art Factory, naturally.)

So, if you intend to attend Exquisite Corpse just to stand limply with drink in hand and brow furrowed expecting an evening of half-arsed aural stimulation, then don’t bother coming. Check your expectations at the door, especially if you happen to be gravely offended by nudity, face painting, magicians, sadomasochism, light shows, synthesisers and an inverted sense of irony and self deprecation. With musicians like i like cats, Virgo Rising, Warhorse, Naked On The Vague, WIM and Kirin J Callinan as well as performers such as Brown Council, Sari Kivinen, Tara Cook and Peter Newman, the night never fails to deliver a spectacle.