Kitchener artists are invited to step into Dr. Frankenstein’s shoes and debut their work in a blindly collaborative, multimedia art project, where they will be asked to create a body part for one of six “corpses,” in a limited period of time.
Celebrating its third year, The Beasting is an annual monster-making challenge at the 44 Gaukel Creative Workspace featuring blind collaborations between 24 artists as they each create one of four beast body parts with limited materials and time. These pieces are then combined to create six different creatures, which are revealed leading up to the fall.
Eric Rumble, the City of Kitchener’s Coordinator of Arts & Creative Industries, and Vincent Marcone, a Juno-award-winning Canadian multimedia artist, film director, and musician, came up with the idea for the Beasting during a party in February 2020 following renovations at 44 Gaukel.
“I think anything that borrows from nature and Frankenstein’s it into something new is beastly to me,” said Marcone. “You’ll notice our artists borrowing from a lot of natural images and placing them into their monsters…to me, that really reflects the spirit of the beast.”
Popularized in the 1920s, the Beasting is inspired by Exquisite Corpse, a drawing game, and technique wielded by early surrealist artists that Marcone was introduced to while studying Fine Arts at the University of Waterloo.
In the original version of the game, artists would fold a piece of paper into sections, each person taking a turn to draw their body part in secret before the full beast is unveiled.
“I think because the artists don’t get to see the final piece until October, there’s no worry about relinquishing any control because they don’t have any to begin with, all they can do is work on their piece and hope for the best,” said Marcone. “I think more often than not, (the artists are) just excited to see how it all comes together.”
Updating the original Exquisite Corpse concept with a digital twist, each artist is given a few hours within the 44 Gaukel to create their body part, during which a time-lapse video is taken.
The videos of the artistic process and completed beasts are then revealed between July and October 2023, accompanied by an artist profile on Midtown Radio, an internet radio station based in 44 Gaukel.
“Frame by frame it only takes about 40 seconds but it’s really compelling to see the beasts come together,” said Marcone. “I’ve always wanted to be involved with creating a project where artists could create (an exquisite corpse) and it’s been really nice to use artists in our area and see how they express themselves.”
That original exquisite corpse currently hangs in 44 Gaukel’s lobby, in the form of a Beastagon, which combines all six heads, torsos, pelvises, and feet into one display that allows the public to assemble their own.
The Beasting’s beasts were also displayed at Lumen 2022, where the completed beasts were projected in their full forms and the artists were finally able to meet in person.
“Seeing all the artists come together and take a look at what had come and seeing the public react to it was really a great experience,” said Marcone. “So just to have people react to it in real-time was really lovely and impressive to see these things looming over the city.”
All artists on this project are compensated by the City of Kitchener for their contributions.
February 10, 2023 is the deadline for any artists interested in participating in The Beasting 2023. You can find more information here.
