THE LOVE Show

The Studio@Splendora Gardens announces an open call to artists of all kinds to submit works or propose performances for “The Love Show”.

Artistic expressions of love, in its many forms, pervade human history. From prehistoric figurines to contemporary pop songs, Petrarch to Pitbull, we have continually devised new ways to express our love to family, friends, lovers, and gods. Love is, in fact, perhaps the purest expression of our humanity. It is seen as timeless, universal, and expressive of the deepest bonds between ourselves and others. Love is transformational, and an emotional state for which we happily make our greatest sacrifices. But it is also a condition upon which we place the most selfish of demands. It is often coercive, a debilitating gamble, a hollow vow ready to be revoked. It is elusive, irrational, devastating, and difficult to express except in the most rote and cloying of manners. As literary critic Catherine Belsey wrote, “It’s the one thing we long to hear the most and yet the most unoriginal thing we say to one another.”

Love is a paradox, full of contradictions and impossibilities. The experience of love is transcendent, but there is no transcendental language to describe it. Love also extends our humanity as it resolves in “contracts, controls, and complacencies.” It supplies our most profound connections while reifying our differences. Love is at once fully desirable and naïve. Love is also infinitely various. Romantic love can carry us to bliss, agape to understanding and spiritual harmony, and philia to the most sincere of relationships with families and friends. On the other hand, forbidden love can lead to tragedy, unrequited love to anguish, and betrayed love to our strongest hatred. Outwardly expressed, love often stumbles in uncontrollably awkward declarations; suppressed it leads to the most sullen of daydreams.

Love is also culturally constituted. We may conceive of it as universal, common to all of humanity across the continents and ages, but it is instead infinitely particular, contingent upon geography, culture, gender, age, etc.—we all experience and express love differently. In this spirit—of the celebration of love’s reward or meditation upon its devastating cost—we invite artists of all types to submit works to be exhibited, presented, and performed at Splendora Gardens. This is a show that encourages a diversity deserving of its subject. Whatever discipline you work within, no matter your level of “achievement,” or age, we are calling for works that express your unique experience or understanding of love. There will be no juror. Everyone gets one piece in! You are welcome to send visual art, read original poetry or prose, perform a song, or anything else for that matter. You can exhibit or perform works you’ve already created or make something new.