Six Ghosts Spell Unknown Alphabet is a transcontinental storytelling project between six artists; Gowara Minsa (G), Ola Jonsrud (N), Jim Holyoak (C), Matt Shane (C), Cathrine Dahl (N) and Ørjan Aas (N). All the artists made paper-based works together and exchanged it by mail amongst themselves in Trondheim, The Hague, Salt Spring Island, Montréal, Toronto, Hønefoss and Berlin. Added up in yet untold sequence, these drawings of varying scales spell out the artists’ shared, but unknown alphabet.
The title ‘Six ghosts spell unknown alphabet’ originated from the first sentence of a game of Exquisite Corpse played in Dale, Sunnfjord in 2012.
It describes inadvertently the role of chance and lost individuality in collaborative creation, as well as drawing as a common but non-spoken language. The artists explore the unexpected detours and perversions that collaboration throws into individual patterns of art making. The drawings become a visual documentation of relationships and conditions, blurring the seams between art and life. The different ways of drawing parallel music; how musicians improvise and harmonize to play the same song, to create a cacophony... or a conversation.