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Tuesday 09|24|02
Splitsville

Sunday night Sheila took me to a performance event featuring a couple of her performance artist friends —Katie Bell and M.I. Blue.

This couple —both performance artists, known for coordinating the dadafest each year, have been together for 4 years as a couple and as performers —are breaking up. They decided that because they were performance artists and that this was an incredibly big event for them, that they would turn it into a piece and share their breakup with their friends and audience.

Last night Sheila took me to a performance event featuring a couple of her performance artist friends.

M.I. Blue reading Katie's first email (image click launches movie)

This couple - a pair of performance artists who have been together for 4 years as a couple and as performers - are breaking up. They decided that because they were performance artists and that this was incredibly big for them, that they would turn it into a piece and share their breakup with their friends and audience.

They invited attendees to share their breakups, love letters etc with the audience as well as any break up songs they might have brought with them.

The work started with the couple reading a series of emails over the course of their relationship - from the first blushes of attraction, to the full fledged after-sex emails, to the daily sharing of thoughts in the middle of the 4 years to the final last emails this past week that are cold and clinical and professional. They have lost the intimacy and the hurt is evident.

Katie describing why they were breaking up

The lawyer delivering mutual restraining orders

I was incredibly impressed by their email correspondence. Very articulate, very literate and playful - expressing themselves as artistically through words as they seem to in performance. The voyeristic part of me wanted them to keep going, keep sharing the emails so we could live vicariously through their peaks and eventual pain.

Sheila reading the excerpt from her love letter

The two then invited folks from the audience to share their stories - Sheila went up and read an excerpt from a letter from the 1st Scorpio - one in a series - and showed the huge stack of letters this woman had written her during their two month fling.

After several others shared, they did a reenactment of the moment they knew it was over. Katie did a handstand against Michael, her skirt flew down and she had nothing on underneath. Michael reached into her and pulled out a condom with

M.I. Blue and Katie laughing (image click launches movie)

something inside. He pulled that out and it was a cloth rabbit with a thought bubble that said "it's over". Then he said - watch me pull a rabbit out of a hat. Ha! This was one of the few scripted parts of the event. Then he spoke a bit about the point in a relationship end when there is a mercy fuck or in his case a mercy bj - all while she was eating a banana. Then she spoke about his impression of her having no feelings - all while he was wrapping her in saran wrap.

Then he shared his top ten break up songs. Next came a review of the five phases of grief - with example phrase for each - denial, anger, depression, bargaining and acceptance. The audience was encourage to shout out each phrase as they were reviewed and then to shout them simultaneously, with feeling.

The couple gets disengaged

They concluded with a formal "disengagement" ceremony. Sort of the opposite of a marriage ceremony. They even had vows. The audience was participating and offering commentary as well.

The whole thing was very surreal —the pain was evident, but there was also collaborative performance and the blend of reality to performance was strange as it was difficult to know which was which. It was an event, a formal passage and like their work, shared with an audience and friends.

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