I’ve taken some art history classes in college and of course art in high school but I will never understand art. The Huffington Post has this story about Aliza Schvarts, an art major from Yale, whose senior art project is sure to cause a huge uproar. Aliza Schvarts project involved artificially inseminating herself as often as possible while taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages. Her art project includes both video and preserved blood from the miscarriages.
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.”
For senior, abortion a medium for art, political discourse by Martine Powers - Yale Daily News
Like I said, I dont understand art. I am sure that her exhibit will do exactly what Aliza Shvarts wants though, create discourse. I personally have always felt that there is great value in challenging peoples opinions and beliefs in this fashon so I look forward to watching this play out.
While I sympathize with those who feel that this trivilizes the pain of an unwanted miscarriage I applaud Aliza Shvarts for the courage to make such a bold statement. Hopefully we can all learn a little more about ourselves and our society through this.
The exhibit is open to the public from April 22nd to May 1st at the gallery of Holcombe T. Green Jr. Hall. I’m sure by then everyone will know about this story so expect to hear more about this here. If anyone has pictures I would be interested. Thanks in advance and please feel free to leave comments.
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2008-04-17 10:08:04
This is one of those times in which I will support a person’s rights but cannot understand or personally agree with what they have done/are doing.
Perhaps after more thought and the initial “shock” wears off I will be able to see validity in her “art” but I don’t really expect to at this point.
2008-04-17 10:45:08
As a pro-choice person, I am personally horrified by this. While theoretically I support Aliza’s rights to do this, but given our political reality, where reproductive rights are under constant attack, her “art” is totally irresponsible. All this is going to do is give anti-choice people ammunition to further infringe upon abortion rights. She plays completely into the unfair stereotype of pro-choice people as rabid callous baby killers. While I never would question women who get an abortion due to circumstances beyond their control, its a completely different thing to impregnate yourself with the intention of inducing miscarriage.
2008-04-17 12:54:27
I absolutely understand that reaction. In fact that was my initial reaction as well. However I feel that there is value in forcing people to ponder whether their support of womens rights and reproductive freedom is absolute or if its just theoretical. To my knowledge the only way to force people to confront that is by pushing beyond what is comfortable. This is well beyond comfortable for most people thankfully.
2008-05-14 08:00:56
To say that this is not for shock value is blatantly false. This is the problem with conceptual art. I came to school to be classically trained yet my professor, a product and advocate of modern art and abstract expressionism, gives me terrible grades because i refuse to contribute to nonsensical abstract garbage. Yale is a college that teaches art from a conceptual perspective as well, so their students are constantly trying to be original or edgy or controversial.
In reality, content is inherent in art. When a viewer looks at a piece, they are going to make assumptions and translate the piece however it effects them on a personal level, and everyone perceives things differently. As an artist, it is your job to create imagery that not only provokes thought, but also speaks a language that can be translated. For this girl to think that making art out of abortion, especially during a time when there is such a clear division between pro-choicers and pro-lifers, is clearly a way to spark controversy. If she wanted to provoke conversation about the relationship between the body and art, she has obviously failed miserably. To even think that making art out of abortion would provoke conversation about anything other than women’s rights is just silly and indicitive of just the kind of education that Yale is providing its students with.