Olive Ayhens American, b. 1943
Paul Pratchenko American, b. 1944
Phyllis Shafer American, b. 1958
Cadavre Exquis Drawing #465, 1993
Mixed media collage on paper
14 1/4 x 10 1/2 in
2000.10.1
Gift of Eileen and Peter Norton
Collection of the Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University
http://museum.marquette.edu/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&module=collection&objectId=314&viewType=detailView

Fans have always found ways to create community. In-person fan communities are created and celebrated at sporting events, concerts, book clubs, and fan conventions. Some of the earliest online social activities were listservs, created and maintained by fans for fans to discuss, for example, the most recent episode of their favorite shows. Now, fans continue to meet in person as well as online, using social media like Discord, TikTok, and Instagram. These communities are a safe place to express fanish identities without outside censure, as well as to collaborate with like minded individuals. It is often within the safe space of these created communities that fans create identities, rules, predictions, and many of the other aspects discussed in this show. 

Cadavre Exquis, or “exquisite corpse” refers to a method of creating or assembling a collection of words or images, in order to create a completed piece. Keeping the methodology of exquisite corpse drawing in mind, Ayhens, Pratchenko, and Shafer each completed their portion of the drawing with minimal knowledge of what the others had completed. While each artist’s style is distinctly different from the others, their separate works come together to create the clear image of a single figure.