Strange happenings

Exquisite Corpse offers a gen(der)re-bending night like no other

By William Bass

Published April 6, 2011

A normal Thursday might be spent preparing for the weekend. Often we fall into a routine. Endless amounts of light beer, staying out until 3:00 am, and watching more bands than you can shake a guitar pick at. The typical weekend can become pretty banal pretty fast, leaving us hungry for something genuine, something exquisite. Organized and founded by Angeliska Polachek, Exquisite Corpse is a monthly parlor, ball, and un-qualifiable dance party where all of one’s repressed weirdness and creativity is encouraged to flaunt itself.

“Exquisite Corpse is a night for modern surrealists and old-school goths to dance, to socialize, and explore in an elegant temporary autonomous zone where ideas and situationist performance have fertile ground to blossom,” said Polachek.

Held in the Swan Dive, Exquisite Corpse transforms the venue into a platform for the other-worldly. The combination of thumping music, costumed attendees, and audience engagement reflects the sort of reality-bending scenario usually only found in cult movies.

“We try and change the space to offer a different experience to be had – decking the venue out with smoke machines, video projections, and dark-wave music definitely helps accomplish that,” says resident Video Jockey Laurel Barickman.

At the same time, Exquisite Corpse isn’t some party for a secret fraternal order or elitist hipster event. On the contrary, anyone and everyone who likes to dawn a Gothic costume and share a little bit of themselves to the event is encouraged to show up.

“I think one of the great things about the event is its accessibility: anyone who wants to peek into this sort of under-world, or have a weird and fun experience that they wouldn’t normally, can,” notes Laurel Barickman.

Being oriented towards audience participation, Exquisite Corpse seems to peel off everyone’s wallflower veneer.

“I just really enjoy the mentality that Exquisite Corpse creates; there are no spectators, everyone is a participator,” exclaims Exquisite Corpse regular David Salazar. “When you go to event like Exquisite Corpse, it is kind of hard to not want to participate.”

Likewise, even those who might be a little reluctant to reveal too much of themselves, a strange and fun night is still possible.

“Even a voyeur could really enjoy and appreciate the scene,” says Barickman. Inspired by the early twentieth-century Dada and Surrealist balls, many of the themes and ideas behind Exquisite Corpse were birthed and incubated in an earlier event of Angeliska’s called Cabaret Revoltaire.

“Cabaret Revoltaire was an experimental surrealist extravaganza, a combination art opening and intentionally chaotic salon featuring visual and performance art, experimental music and installation, pranks, invisible theater, inexplicable fashion, participatory painting, and interactive hi-jinks of all sorts,” states Angeliska. In classic Gothic fashion, Exquisite Corpse revives the dead idea of the participatory party in which the guests reverse the mirror of performance and expectations of being entertained onto themselves. Moreover, in a time when apathy is the rule number one in the Code of Cool, Exquisite Corpse’s cocktails, parlor games, performance, and dance mingle together into a spirit as intoxicating and refreshing as absinthe.

“There’s no announcer, no stage, no audience. It’s more of a happening. I love the idea of a salon (not the getting your hair-did kind), but as a place to exchange ideas, and even to workshop your creative process,” proclaims Angeliska. “I love performance when it just happens unexpectedly – this is definitely the kind of space where anything might happen.”

The next Exquisite Corpse goes down this Thursday, April 7. Future Exquisite Corpses will take place on the first Thursday of every month. The price is three dollars if you “dress to transgress” and five dollars for a “sad trombone.”

http://uweeklyaustin.com/article/strange-happenings-916/