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Art and abortion - one Yalie takes it a bit far


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She's definitely going to spark some conversation with this one:

Art major Aliza Shvarts '08 wants to make a statement.

Beginning next Tuesday, Shvarts will be displaying her senior art project, a documentation of a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself "as often as possible" while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages. Her exhibition will feature video recordings of these forced miscarriages as well as preserved collections of the blood from the process.

The goal in creating the art exhibition, Shvarts said, was to spark conversation and debate on the relationship between art and the human body. But her project has already provoked more than just debate, inciting, for instance, outcry at a forum for fellow senior art majors held last week. And when told about Shvarts' project, students on both ends of the abortion debate have expressed shock . saying the project does everything from violate moral code to trivialize abortion.

But Shvarts insists her concept was not designed for "shock value."

"I hope it inspires some sort of discourse," Shvarts said. "Sure, some people will be upset with the message and will not agree with it, but it's not the intention of the piece to scandalize anyone."

The "fabricators," or donors, of the sperm were not paid for their services, but Shvarts required them to periodically take tests for sexually transmitted diseases. She said she was not concerned about any medical effects the forced miscarriages may have had on her body. The abortifacient drugs she took were legal and herbal, she said, and she did not feel the need to consult a doctor about her repeated miscarriages.

The display of Schvarts' project will feature a large cube suspended from the ceiling of a room in the gallery of Green Hall. Schvarts will wrap hundreds of feet of plastic sheeting around this cube; lined between layers of the sheeting will be the blood from Schvarts' self-induced miscarriages mixed with Vaseline in order to prevent the blood from drying and to extend the blood throughout the plastic sheeting.

Schvarts will then project recorded videos onto the four sides of the cube. These videos, captured on a VHS camcorder, will show her experiencing miscarriages in her bathrooom tub, she said. Similar videos will be projected onto the walls of the room.
khasson

68 responses // Art and abortion - one Yalie takes it a bit far

  • Whoa, This is absolutely ridiculous.
    AdaJada
  • Yeah, really stupid. This reminds me of some of the jaw-droppingly idiotic shit I saw at art school - but nothing went quite this far.
    Blazesboy
  • this may be 'creative,' but i bet she can be more creative than this -- and without having to do forced miscarriages. she found an answer but didnt consider her audience: the 21st century split between pro-life and pro-choice. this being a controversy is inevitable and she should have seen it coming.

    and abortion shouldn't be taken lightly that it becomes 'ok'...
    pogschampion
  • Wow i didn't realize she was artificially inseminating herself and then taking drugs to force miscarriages. It would be one thing if she filmed herself having a miscarriage after naturally becoming pregnant...that would give us insight into what a woman goes through and the real natural sense of tremendous loss, guilt and grief a woman suffers would be reflected in her video and would offer tremendous insight into a very sensitive and painful issue. However, she has robbed her 'project' of this by forcing these abortions. Her work goes way beyond any ethical code (for the sake of art)?? She's purposefully toying with life and death.
    This disgusts me.
    aurora143
  • watch this comment being used here and here
    This really disturbs me, and I'm pro-choice, what does O'reilly have to say about this?
    joshuaheller
  • I'm all for crazy expressions of art but damn. This woman has taken it to a whole new level. I think its pretty gross but do appreciate her efforts to express herself.

    Some woman spend their adult lives trying to have a baby... kinda sucks that this girl can physically have these children then abort them so willingly.

    Who knows the amount of damage her body has suffered all for the sake of art...
    Alert
  • I'm not going to say that this isn't art, however, I think that the project makes her look like she has a total disregard for human life.
    Freck
  • I'm so appalled by this.
    heather_hunter
  • Agreed, Freck. It's cynical, decadent, weirdly postmodern bullshit.
    Blazesboy
  • This is absurd! I don't really get the artistic part of it? I can't see how making light of a very serious decision that millions of women have had to make just for shits and giggles is all that creative. I think the only conversation it's going to spark isn't going to have anything to do with abortion, but rather the "artist's" mental and emotional stability.
    jostamey
  • watch this comment being used here, here, here and here
    While I appreciate her effort to take art to a new level of experimentalism, I feel disturbed by the lack of respect for her body and her life.

    She can do whatever she wants to herself, but she should not be allowed (or even encouraged) to exhibit the result of such a meaningless and self-destructive process.
    saverio
  • http://www.kitsunenoir.com/blogimages/tamponteacup.jpg
    the biggest underlying psychological issue plaguing people who masochistically manipulate their bodies (cutters, folks w. eating disorders, etc) is a feeling of extreme lack of control in their lives.

    while i initially dismissed Shvarts' project as recycled shock schlock that's dealing with the same gender issues (lack of control as a woman) in the same adolescent manner as the 70's feminist performance artists, a quick google provided me a link to a book that explores masochistic art, which made the interesting point that work like this is more prevalent at times of collective cultural trauma--ie a blanket CULTURAL feeling of helplessness and lack of control--citing that the original rush of this work came when Americans were dealing with our trauma of complicity in the Vietnam war.

    quote:

    "...the growth of masochistic performance during the 1970s must be seen in the context of society's response to the Vietnam War and contemporaneous changes in theories of contract. She contends that the dynamic that exists between audience and performer during these masochistic acts relates to tensions resulting from ruptures in the social contract. Indeed, as the war in Vietnam waned, so did masochistic performance, only to reemerge in the 1980s in relation to the "war on AIDS" and the censorious "culture wars."

    http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/O/odell_contract.html

    so maybe there is something right about bringing the old bloody tampons in teacups out of the closet right about now.
    regina
  • There is something about this that is rather tragic-- Using art to invigorate meaningful and thoughtful conversation about pressing social issues is something that our society needs.

    But this artists is making a statement about art-- without speaking about what her piece is designed to convey. It's like...talking about the alphabet without using letters. And to me, it's the sign of a naive and undeveloped artist.

    Meanwhile-- that pet peeve aside, art is the eye of the beholder- and i think there is a lot of meaning that can be brought to this piece in the times we live in.
    leahl
  • Right you are Regina. Each individual has the right to express angst to zeal on any canvas, especially yourself. Look at this place.
    jleemuse
  • I can never trust "masochists" or "sadists" for anything as they in their own; "twisted will of action;" crossed the limits of human reason and balance. Their ideas and philosophy can ruin and abuse our entire society.

    Observe that I used the affirmation expression as it has been confirmed that this is not a theory but a reality. I am not against their practice of their abuse on themselves, but I am against giving them key positions of control and decision in Government or Society. ...and that is something I am not compromising with it.

    -If You're a "masochist" or you're a "sadist" you're out baby!!!
    stopnoise
  • This is an astonishing and risky choice to make. I don't believe her massage has been made clear, however. She wishes for debate and analysis, which will inevitably ensue. But what is her message to the "viewers"? Would she like us to believe something about her as an artist or activist, about abortion, about those who are "pro-life" or "pro choice". If we could get into her head and understand her deepest motivations for this piece we all may be quite surprised.
    katedawn
  • Everyone has a right to express their art in their own way, but the lives she 'created and destroyed' had no choice. Creating life with the intent to kill it? Sick.
    patsarts
  • Express herself? Art? This is seriously twisted..This girl is psychotic!! There need no other conversation about her right to do it...but... good God..why go there???
    cibalin
  • what i find most interesting about all of this is: how did she get the gallery on board with this project?
    ashabpatel
  • wow, i wonder where she is displaying this. I'm sadly curious by this, since i live near yale.
    Joydejavu17
  • Disgusting, I hope she catches some disease and rots in pain from the inside out.
    Liberal_Extinction
  • Her message is akin to the posts on forums in the form: "Something happened, discuss..." without actully participating or adding anything to the discussion.
    _Hayko
  • Art is Not Insanity, but insane individuals can do art to try to couple with their mental malady. However, they must be monitored to not cross the limits of their own mental and physical disabilities.
    stopnoise
  • this is really sick, there have been many stuns in the past pulled in the name of art, but this is over the top.
    mlp4d
  • Just some thoughts on the artist:

    As I understand it, a woman goes through some intense emotional attraction to her baby, and perhaps this is why we find this so appalling. How could a woman possibly bear a child for the sole intent to kill it? Doesn't this go against God, nature, and the like? Maybe this woman was able to willfully kill her children because she doesn't feel emotion. It is possible and quite probable that this woman is a psychopath, i.e. someone who has no conscience and feels no emotion, and it is for this reason that she is able to make this work of "art" that most people would never dream of doing.

    Then again, maybe that emotional attachment between the mother and baby doesn't begin until the later stages of pregnancy, and so her miscarriag-ing didn't affect her that much mentally because it was done in the early stages. Or maybe she just really, really believes in promoting discussion..
    bWitty
  • I'm amazed she got on the news intead of inside a white-long-sleveeeeeeeee...
    Raulek
  • Art is beautiful, but this is going too far. It's not even natural, or normal.
    sarahjesse
  • Hmm, I wonder if someone can make a project using Aliza Shvarts's bloody, mangled corpse and call it art. It's the same thing, right? Killing someone else for the sole sake of self-expression? Sounds pretty fair to me.

    I don't noramlly say this (and it's probably going to get me in trouble) but I seriously hope this little "experiment" of her's has serious and deadly repercussions for her in the near future. People like her give TRUE artists a bad name and her blatant disregard for life should lose her her own.
    crystal_raye
  • I love artists' ability to point out the paradox of life and get society's attention with extremes. This artist is no more deranged than any other, she is just the product of a desensitized world.
    I am on the fence with many issues, however, I have long pointed out the irony to my colleagues that are antiwar because of killing but are also pro-choice. But this article sickened them, to think their FREEDOM of choice contributes to the devaluing of life.
    walski
  • things that make you go huh...this is an odd one
    diode
  • Maybe we can hook her up with the artist who let the dog starve to death as part of his public "art"
    pattik
  • I'm going to have to defend the artist here. I am going to bet that she never got pregnant enough to have it show, which means the embryo was probably never that big when she aborted it. She realized early-term abortions are safe and don't harm anyone, so ran with it. Of course, if you believe that an embryo is a person, you aren't going to agree with that statement.

    I think it's scarier people here react so viscerally that you're actually wishing harm upon her. This is just an art project from a woman who learned how to manipulate her bodily functions.
    projectid
  • Poetic justice would be someone running this ____ over with an eighteen wheeler, setting her on fire, putting HER remains in saran wrap, calling it art and putting her on display. You may be saying OMG that sounds terroristic but it's not as long as I dub it art and show it off in something called a gallery. I'm glad to see even some of the most liberal outraged and appalled at this woman and her sick ass stunt.
    Liberal_Extinction
  • Wow. This is controversy at it's height. Thanks for this story.
    SelmaA
  • can't you get really sick from doing this???
    keeshii768
  • she's already famous - now how about all the "starving artists" living lives of quiet desperation? guess why they're starving ? because they don't have the genius to be as "original" as this girl , and get so much press even before their work has been exhibited - Warhol and Maplethorp would envy her , and if you're not aware of Hirst , check him out - in the "art world" this is what is called "brilliant" .
    malathion
  • yale's office of public affairs has posted this on their website:

    Statement by Helaine S. Klasky — Yale University, Spokesperson
    New Haven, Conn. — April 17, 2008
    Ms. Shvarts is engaged in performance art. Her art project includes visual representations, a press release and other narrative materials. She stated to three senior Yale University officials today, including two deans, that she did not impregnate herself and that she did not induce any miscarriages. The entire project is an art piece, a creative fiction designed to draw attention to the ambiguity surrounding form and function of a woman’s body.
    She is an artist and has the right to express herself through performance art.
    Had these acts been real, they would have violated basic ethical standards and raised serious mental and physical health concerns.

    http://www.yale.edu/opa/

    now the question is, who is telling the truth?
    photomikew
  • "truth" is absolutely superfluous in this instance ( "truth" in art has always been the concern of the artists themselves , critics or collectors follow the dialogue initiated by artists )- it wouldn't really matter if her work was never even exhibited - she ideated a "work" which has pressed exactly the kind of "buttons" she intended - she is a success .
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