So there’s this Yale art student named Aliza Shvarts who got herself pregnant “as often as possible” over a period of nine months (through artificial insemination) and then took drugs to abort all pregnancies. Her reason? She says it’s art. And she had her exhibit a couple of weeks ago.
The project, which begins showing Tuesday, features a hanging cube containing blood from Shvarts’ miscarriages combined with videos of her going through them in her bathtub, the Daily News reported. [UPI]
She insisted that the project was not conceptualized for “shock value.”
Even by purely visual aesthetic standards, I don’t see how blood from aborted miscarriages can be art. But then again, there is the famous Angelina Jolie who, for years, wore a vial of ex-hubby Billy Bob Thornton’s blood around her neck. Although some eyebrows rose, there were no howls. Okay, perhaps, Angelina Jolie’s taste in jewelry is tame compared to Aliza Shvarts’ idea of art.
The UPI link is via Rebecca is Fabulous.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
David T 05.02.08 at 5:00 pm
actually the Yale Admin prevented her from exhibiting her ‘work’ unless she said that her piece was a work of fiction (such that the art was more about the reaction to a fictional abortive work as opposed to a real one). She never did, so they never let her exhibit her work, so in order to pass the class, she had to come up with something else.
Ria 05.02.08 at 10:22 pm
Although I believe that it is her body and that she has the freedom to do what she wants to with it, I still think that she might be in need of psychological help. Couldn’t she think of any other way to convey her message that the human body and art are linked, a way that does not use life for [what she calls] art?
Ria 05.02.08 at 10:24 pm
BTW, found this page with links to other articles related to your post:
http://buzzfeed.com/buzz/Aliza_Shvarts
toni 05.02.08 at 11:08 pm
Wow. Murder as art. Doesn’t get any sicker than that.
rhodora 05.03.08 at 9:46 am
Art, perhaps - sick art, that is.
Well, maybe for private consumption and personal satisfaction - siguro sa bahay niya i-display, okay lang, she has all the right. But for public.. ugh.
BlogusVox 05.03.08 at 2:23 pm
There is a saying; Anything you do is art but knowing art is when to stop.
Blackshama 05.03.08 at 4:03 pm
Wow this is so analogous to this! Some Nazis considered lampshades made from human skin of executed prisoners as “art”!
ed villanueva 05.04.08 at 5:09 pm
Two years ago I went to see a human anatomy exhibit,on exhibition were real human bodies that were turned almost like a mannequin even in texture. All parts of the body were shown in details to the public and there were about 20of them of different ages,gender and race(some were posing like an athlete).It was a 20days event and thousand of people came out to see it.This exhibition was more on understanding science but the presentation was quite artistic.
micketymoc 05.08.08 at 7:25 am
Pro-choice activists often argue that the decision to have an abortion isn’t lightly made.
Aliza Shvarts just made life a hell of a lot more difficult for pro-choice activists.