by Aliza Shvarts, a Yalie art major, will be displaying her senior art project on campus next week. The content: videos of herself suffering through a series of deliberately self-induced miscarriages and wads of plastic smeared with the blood and tissue expelled from her womb in the process.
Freaky, to say the least.
Per Yale Daily News, the project is:
…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.
…
"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."
Liar. Later in the article her motives are made clear:
"I believe strongly that art should be a medium for politics and ideologies, not just a commodity," Shvarts said. "I think that I’m creating a project that lives up to the standard of what art is supposed to be."
I disagree, strongly.
I did find it reassuring, however, that, even at a liberal college like Yale, there are people who recognize an obscenity when they read about it. I imagine that Shvarts’ "art" show will be very successful in terms of the number of eyeballs it attracts. Nevertheless, the project is morally reprehensible one many levels and only serves to pollute art world’s more worthy content.
Ironically, Shvarts’ chemically induced abortions may be among the least offensive examples of the act. Her pregnancies both began and ended without a semblance of hope or decency; nothing but death was ever intended to emerge from her project and nothing has.
In contrast, the vast majority of abortions performed could – at least have the potential – to end in joy if the procedure is not performed. Not so here.
