The spirit of improvisation, problem-solving and spontaneity fueled this collaborative project in which three painters and two sculptors embarked on an experimental process in which the individual artist signature hand was transferred to the collective whole. These five artists were each given two pieces of paper, for a total of ten mixed-media drawings. Every two weeks we passed our drawing to another artist in a prescribed order, never to work on a drawing more than once, and always to work on the drawings at different stages in their development. The size, 10" x 10", is portable; the medium is open.

We named this collection as a revisited reference to a children’s game in which a sentence is whispered from one person to the next, usually to end up quite different by the time it reaches the end of the line. This children’s game is most commonly referred to as “Telephone” in the United States, but this same game has been played for over a century and is known by different names in at least thirty languages spoken around the world, from Macedonian to Japanese and Norwegian to Czech. We have chosen to adapt the name of this game in Turkish, Kulaktan kulağa, literally “from ear to ear.” In our case, our drawings were passed from eye to eye, continually modified and expanded by the subsequent artists who adapted and added to them. Whatever “vision” we each started out with was often completely revised and re-envisioned by the end. Any initial intentions or original concepts were altered by the next interpreter, who added new dimensions for the next artist, who would then build additional layers and twists on the work from before. We did not strategize together or collaboratively communicate ideas; the work had to speak for itself as it faced its next architect. Just as in the children’s game, perception is subjective and distinct to each individual, and each intended meaning will change as it filters through another, so that the end result is perhaps a drastically different incarnation from the original concept. This project forced us to relinquish control of our work and leave it to an unknown fate as we passed it on in trust to the next person. Conversely, we each faced the often challenging, mystifying, and problem-solving task of continuing the work presented before us.

The greatest challenge of all was for us to each successfully complete two of the drawings as the final artist in a sequence, integrating into a balanced whole the work of four previous artists in multiple media, without verbal communication with each other, without having viewed the work in any of its previous stages, and to resolve it in a manner that resonated as a complete, cohesive piece without undoing the individuality of each contributor. We believe that through our observation of each work’s evolution, through the tasks of linking disparate artistic elements into a united whole, and through the risk-taking aspect of acquiescing our work – without oversight – to another artist, we have each enhanced our solo practices in furthered introspection and fearless boldness.

This project perpetuates a rich tradition of artist collaboration from the Exquisite Corpse of the Surrealist movement, to the collaborative paintings of Warhol and Basquiat, to the current collaborations of TEAM Shag and the Royal Art Lodge. Through this work, we explored our individual identities as artists and the critical thinking and strategy of working through to a satisfying resolution when presented with an artistic challenge. We hope this work demonstrates the power of the individual, the evolution of a concept, the unexpected surprises in the creative process, and the uniting force – through visual problem-solving – that transforms the disconnected into a collective whole without sacrificing diversity.