ICA features the ‘Exquisite Corpse’ workshop with Yusuf Hassan

Lelia Contee, Contributing Writer 

Making connections, exchanging ideas and fostering creativity are what participants should expect in a collaborative workshop organized by the ICA and VCUarts Department of Graphic Design, which featured Yusuf Hassan on March 2, according to the event’s page.  

The workshop, “Publishing as the Exquisite Corpse: Extending on Publishing as a Collective Effort,” is a part of the Objects + Methods Lecture Series that shows students and the public a different array of design practices and ways to approach making work today, according to Luiza Dale, co-organizer of Objects + Methods. 

“The lecture offers them a chance to see how different artists, designers, makers work in the world and exist and operate,” Dale said. “We always aim for a variety of different speakers and different ways that design can happen in the world.” 

For the graphic design community, the series challenges traditional notions of the field, according to Herdimas Anggara, co-organizer of Objects + Methods. 

Although students come in being artistically inclined, there are still limited ideas of what graphic design entails, according to Anggara. The lecture series allows students to see beyond preconceived notions of what graphic design is. 

“There’s a lot of things you can do within graphic design,” Anggara said. “It’s not specifically about a logo, an advertisement — it could be anything. If students are interested in performance, they can do that.” 

“The Exquisite Corpse” workshop invites participants to bring texts, images or other media to create and collaborate on a publication featuring Hassan, the founder of Black Mass Publishing, according to the event’s page.  

Hassan said he directed attendees to create surrealist art on a folded piece of paper using the provided art supplies. Attendees would then connect their art pieces with each other to make a collective work. He says it became a collaborative way of thinking creatively and outside the box. 

Hassan founded Black Mass Publishing in 2019 to build on his self-publishing practice that began in 2016, according to Hassan. 

Black Mass Publishing was inspired by the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s and its founder Amari Baraka. He said he was also inspired by Baraka’s play “A Black Mass,” and Sun Ra, who did the score for the play. 

Hassan said he noticed that there was a low presence of Black people and self-publishing after the movement. He said he aims to rejuvenate this idea, pay homage to those he was influenced by and keep the conversation going.

Black Mass Publishing was initially founded on the need for Black voices and publishing to expand the voice of Black people in the diaspora, according to Hassan. It was a way to organize artists, poets, writers and people who did have an initial publishing practice to work together. 

“I’m thinking about mass as in presence, like a mass of Black people,” Hassan said. “The presence of Black people is very strong, the voice of Black people is very strong and publishing is a very strong tool of communication.”

The practice utilizes zines — or self-published magazines — as a way for him to keep tabs on his photography and ongoing research into different archives. 

Zines are an ‘unfiltered way to distribute information and live out thoughts’ compared to major publications and publishing houses, according to Hassan. It was the method used to share information, whether through photography, essays, poetry or organizing communities. 

“I think we should always give thought to publishing as a tool of communication and understand that it is a great tool to use in all practices to expand on our work and look at the progress and progression of everything that we’re doing,” Hassan said.