The Ex Games

Failed relationships fuel Valentines Day art exhibit, embittered romper room

Monday, February 4, 2008

As the poet J. Geils once immortally intoned, "Love stinks." It’s this immutable truism that lies at the blackened and oozing heart of The Ex-Show. It’s a multimedia art exhibit that invites attendees to whimsically wallow in the filth of their own ex-relationships by providing a venue to purge mixtapes and other detritus from former lovers. Throw in activities like "Pin the Tail on the Ex," and organizers hope this interactive invective forum will help purge the soul. Curator Jill Ensley (who also blogs on lawrence.com) joined us to talk about The Ex-Show, colons, and why happy people suck.

lawrence.com: The Ex-Show—please tell me that this has something to do with recreational dance drugs from the '90s.

Ensley: Oh, I wish.

Dammit!

Yeah, sorry.

Well, all of my questions were Ecstasy-related. We’ll just wing it. What is the Ex-Show?

It’s not triple-X, either.

So it’s not a porno revue?

No, it’s not a "SEx-Show," it’s an "Ex-Show." It’s a show dedicated to our exes. Artwork made in response to ex-boyfriends or ex-girlfriends, things like that.

What sort of pieces have you accumulated so far?

We have everything. We’ll hopefully have some performance art coming through: poetry readings, which are always fun; paintings; sculpture; digital video projections.

Is Valentine’s Day the worst holiday, or is it neck and neck with World Leprosy Day?

Oh, that’s close. It’s up there.

Are you expecting any bonfires or effigies of exes being mutilated?

We have two rules—no fights, no fires. There will be a sign. Take it outside. I don’t care what you do out there.

"The EX-Show"

When: Thursday, Feb. 14, 2008, 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Where: 4-1-1 Studio, 411 E. Ninth, Lawrence
Cost: Free
Age limit: All ages

Full event details

You’re inviting people to bring ex memorabilia, though. Can we at least smash it, Gallagher-style, with a big hammer?

I’m not saying there won’t be a fire—it’ll just be outside. There might be an "ex pit" where you can burn stuff.

"Ex Pit"—sounds like something you’d find on American Gladiators. Is this going to be a cathartic experience for those of us who are recently single and embittered husks of our former selves?

Yes, this is for you. Hopefully there will be a little spiritual healing—a little cleansing.

Sort of like Colon Cleanse for the heart?

Why does everybody go to the colon whenever I say that?

Because the heart is also full of shit, as a French existentialist might say. Although the theme of the Ex-Show isn’t just about venomous rage, right?

Yeah. I mean, "ex" can mean anything—from anger and bitterness, to nostalgia, to appreciation. Sometimes people are still good friends when they break up.

I don’t get those people.

I don’t either, but they’re out there. It’s a universal topic and I figured that everybody’s probably got some connection with an ex.

While putting the show together, have you stumbled across any truly messed up break-up stories?

Not really. I’m more interested in Lawrence connections. We were thinking about doing a "Lawrence Family Tree," but figured it might get a little awkward.

"Connections" is a very polite way of saying "hook-ups." Man, that would be a tree with no branches.

It would be one big circle. Someone would end up looking really bad, so we nixed it. It would have been a great sociological study, though.

We’ll turn this into "Love Line," now—what’s your personal advice for going through a break-up and having to interact with the ex afterwards?

Move. The only helpful thing I’ve ever heard, really, is that it takes exactly as long as the relationship lasted to get over it—which is tough if you’ve been in a long relationship.

The Ex-Show sounds like a perfect Valentine’s Day activity for us lonely hearts. Actually, it sounds like it might also be a fun activity for people in relationships—they can feel superior to all of the single people.

Right, they can walk around and be disgustingly in love. That would be great—it would fuel the bitterness. This could be a great starting point for more art. We also want people to bring mixtapes and play them—that will be humorous and fun. There will be games, too. I’m thinking "Pin the Blame on the Ex," like "Pin the Tail on the Donkey," where you write down what you would have wanted to say to your ex and pin it on them.

Way to turn tragedy and heartbreak into "Double Dare"! Is there going to be a slime pit?

We should just have a big bucket of gross, or maybe an obstacle course. Mark Summers might be there—I think he needs the work. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

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Posted by Dominic_Sova (anonymous) on February 12, 2008 at 11:59 a.m.

(This comment was removed by the site staff.)

2 of 3 people found this comment useful.

Posted by editer (Phil Cauthon) on February 12, 2008 at 3:30 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Dominic_Sova—
"You agree to not ... post ... any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials ..."
—from our full commenting policy linked above.

We have to draw the line somewhere, not just regarding your site but with anyone who tries to use lawrence.com's comments section as free advertising. I've not removed similar notes of yours in the past because I know you're local and surely mean well, but we really can't allow that kind of constant linking to your site in our stories and events. After a while it starts to looks like spam and degrades the value of our comments section. I hope you understand—Phil

0 of 1 people found this comment useful.

Posted by Dominic_Sova (anonymous) on February 12, 2008 at 4:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I would disagree with "constant linking" - I have only linked in comments on stories related to local art (the focus of redballoo.ning.com)

I would also question whether "advertising" applies to a completely non-revenue site. A local community resource (which profits no one except local arts) is basically being censored by the World Company here.

I would not wish to be one of the many who contribute to the degredation of the ljw comments section, but somehow I don't think community minded networking - which in no way infringes upon, competes with, or even criticizes the World Company (and which, again, I stress, NO ONE profits by; in fact, my site links BACK to ljw arts + events), can be interpreted as "Spam".

Somebody get Marion over here quick.

Thanks.

Dominic

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Posted by Dominic_Sova (anonymous) on February 12, 2008 at 4:34 p.m. (Suggest removal)

ah, hope you don't delete that one for the inadvertent additional link.......maybe disabling the autolink feature which is built in to your site architecture would enable by posts to be simmons- legit

1 of 1 people found this comment useful.

Posted by editer (Phil Cauthon) on February 12, 2008 at 4:52 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Come on Dominic— just mentioning "World Company" "Simmons" and "censor" in the same thought doesn't make what you say true.

Whether you turn a profit or not doesn't change the fact that by repeatedly copying and pasting the same basic phrase in comments around lawrence.com you're essentially spamming this site and its readers.

In the interest of transparency, here's the removed comment:

>
Two Art shows this week, and both have been given wonderful press by the World Co. Thanks for the support, we can all be assured the local art lovers will be come out in full.

For those who's taste for art, art news, and local goings-on of the artistic nature, be sure to join http://RedBalloo.ning.com, Lawrence's only online gallery AND social network dedicated to the local art scene.

If you're not interested in setting up your own (customizeable) profile, or uploading (unlimited) images of your own art, perhaps you'd just like to browse over 500 images uploaded by local artists today!

http://redballoo.ning.com
<

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Posted by leslie (Leslie vonHolten) on February 12, 2008 at 5:40 p.m. (Suggest removal)

!!!

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Posted by leslie (Leslie vonHolten) on February 12, 2008 at 5:58 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Dominic does do other constructive things on this board, like questioning the integrity of arts writers (and then telling his friends that said arts writers weren't actually at the events they've written about).

Funny how the conversation is never about the art at hand.

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Posted by godjilla (Jill Ensley) on February 12, 2008 at 8:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)

And Dom, seriously. You could have talked about you being IN the show, then added the shameless plug. It was a little disheartening that a few hours ago it was the only comment....but, then of course, there's this...which is almost better.

All I have to say is, "No fights, no fires."

1 of 1 people found this comment useful.

Posted by OnShakedown (Chris Tackett) on February 13, 2008 at 3:08 p.m. (Suggest removal)

that is some nice copy, dom. you could read that original comment verbatim and have a pretty solid radio spot. or cut the text down a bit and make a great flash or print ad. it's got everything you'd need minus the logo.

it looks like a duck...just saying.

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Posted by reeveso (John Reeves) on February 14, 2008 at 7:35 a.m. (Suggest removal)

What about the show and not the scene?

Go see the show TONITE; Happy St. Valentine's Day, dammit.

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Posted by godjilla (Jill Ensley) on February 14, 2008 at 12:52 p.m. (Suggest removal)

YEAH!

It's going to be awkward and awesome. So excited....must go make awesomer.

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Posted by reeveso (John Reeves) on February 14, 2008 at 11:13 p.m. (Suggest removal)

You succeeded in making it awesomer. Good turnout & fine work.

The Ex Games

Failed relationships fuel Valentines Day art exhibit, embittered romper room

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