A Reason to Drunk Text Your Ex? The Museum of Broken Relationships Comes to Houston

(photo by Satish Krishnamurthy)

My high school boyfriend broke up with me a week before the prom in two sentences. The second one was "I have to go, Star Wars is on TV tonight." Though much has happened in my life since that moment of teen bathos, it still rings out as one of my clearest memories. There's something about break-ups, about the destruction of human relationships, that has an undeniable power.

Oddly, not much visual art had been devoted to the topic. Until recently with the debut of the Museum of Broken Relationships, created by artist Drazin Grubisic and film producer Olinka Vistica--formerly a couple. It was their own break up, and the dividing up their possessions, that convinced them that objects related to the end of love might have some poignancy and interest even to those not involved in the love affair.

So they started collecting objects and statements about them, gathering the first batch into a collection in 2006. Garden gnomes that were hurled in anger, sexy lingerie that went unworn, even a pair of suspenders were displayed, each with a short paragraph about their meaning. The exhibit toured until it found a permanent space in Zagreb, Croatia. Now part of it will be touring once again, heading to the Blaffer Art Museum in Houston beginning this Saturday through June 4. After that it heads to London, England to the Tristan Bates Theater (Aug 15-Sept. 4).

Hey, I can think of worse reasons to give one's ex a call....