Miscarriage or art project?

[proud2BlibKansan]

Aliza Shvarts, a senior art major at Yale, artificially inseminated herself "as often as possible" while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages for her senior art project. The Yale Daily News has more details on Aliza Shvarts' miscarriage art project.

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

Aliza Shvarts 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.

http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/24513

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/a17/yale-student-artificially_n_97194.html

[SoCalDem]

1. I'm no prude, but that's just plain GROSS..

I think she may need to see a shrink..:eyes:

[Blue_In_AK]

2. All righty, then...

Not exactly my idea of art, but it's a free country.

[MercutioATC]

3. Ya know, I really do try to remain open about this stuff....

...but this really IS just kinda sick.

[PeaceNikki]

4. It's being reported as a hoax

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080418/D903VVSO0.html

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. LOL

What an art project!

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

13. It morphed into performance art. :)

[LisaL]

15. She insists it's real.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351730,00.html

[alittlelark]

31. Odd how FAUX NEWS insists it's real (with her weird name and all).

They (The FAUX ET AL "all 'news' all the time") NEED news stories that get our panties in a wad.... that way they will not have to report on REALITY in our country _ when our panties are all twisted up we can't think straight.

[LisaL]

41. Here. Don't like fox news, read Yale daily news.

She's got tapes of herself.
http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/24530

[Codedonkey]

21. lol, she's just a troll... :P

[lisa58]

5. how exactly did she think that one up?

[skycordia]

6. Wow, that is disgusting.

This is definitely going to be used later in rhetoric to try to take away abortion rights.

[kestrel91316]

7. You know, I'm unequivocally pro-choice. But I think I have found my limit.

The idea of deliberately becoming pregnant for the sole purpose of having an abortion - repeatedly - and then using the conceptus as ENTERTAINMENT is just sick.

This woman is obviously in need of major psychiatric assistance.

[PeaceNikki]

8. It's. A. Hoax.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080418/D903VVSO0.html

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. She needs psychiatric help

In a big way. lol

[PeaceNikki]

12. I concur.

[Matariki]

19. Philistine!

I know, I know. You don't know much about art, but you know what you like.

And press releases about faked artificial insemination & abortificant , not so much, right? :rofl:

[alfredo]

43. Andy Kaufmann would have appreciated it.

[LisaL]

14. The artist herself insists it's real.

I just wonder whose bright mind permitted for such a thing to be displayed as art?
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,351730,00.html
By the way ignoring the "gross" factor, such a thing would be un-healthy in several ways.

[Matariki]

22. Of course she insists it's real. That's part of the piece.

it's very clever in it's own way.

[LisaL]

23. She's got it on video, which is a part of this art.

You either gonna watch her having a miscarriage, or her period, apparently.

[uppityperson]

27. So she says.

[LisaL]

40. Not just "she says."

She showed those tapes to reporters.
"And while some news stories late Thursday dismissed Shvarts’s exhibition as a wholesale hoax, the Davenport senior showed elements of her planned exhibition to News reporters, including footage from tapes she plans to play at the exhibit. The tapes depict Shvarts, sometimes naked, sometimes clothed, alone in a shower stall bleeding into a cup. It was all part of a project that Shvarts said had the backing of the dean of her residential college and at least two faculty members within the School of Art."


http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/24530

[uppityperson]

42. I believe the Yale statement, not hers. May show her bleeding.

Lots of special effects can be done, even without computer graphic stuff.

[LisaL]

46. I think she would know better if she did inpregnate herself or not, than

Yale.

[uppityperson]

48. She also said she never did a pg test, took herbs and have menstrual period at usual time.

I don't know of any herbs that can be taken to ensure a miscarriage, having her menses at usual time, and never having pg test, I sincerely doubt she was impregnated.

[Matariki]

18. Oooh. Brilliant.

Really.

[Cant trust em]

9. In a word...

gross.

[madrchsod]

16. it`s performance art

it is not "art"....i guess there is`t anyone to tell her no.....

[Matariki]

17. "hundreds of feet of plastic sheeting" & "college art project"

Those are synonyms, right?

[Codedonkey]

20. That is just weird....

[Bettie]

24. I wonder if her mom is proud

Not to mention how hard it will be for her to invite grandma and grandpa to her senior art exhibit!

I suspect its not real, but then, I also don't need to see someone's menstrual blood mixed with vaseline smeared all over anything. I've seen enough of my own in my lifetime....

I may be showing my Midwestern hick side here, but this whole thing is just weird.

[Dorian Gray]

25. That's DEFINITELY

your Midwestern Hick side showing! (Not really.) This is disturbing on a number of levels to me.

[uppityperson]

26. Creative fiction. Here is more inks, including Yale's official statement...

So yes, she did a project, and yes, it got people talking. I heard about it and did some quick research yesterday since she'd talked about taking herbs to miscarry and I wanted to see what the heck she was going on about. Here is Yale statement also:

http://www.yale.edu/opa

ew 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://jezebel.com/381205/yale-abortion-art-piece-was-creative-fiction

Yale: Abortion Art Piece Was "Creative Fiction"

So it turns out that Aliza Shvarts, the Yale student who said she impregnated herself only to abort her fetuses using "herbal" methods several times over for an art project, totally pulled one over on everyone. (Well, everyone except Moe.) She didn't really get pregnant a bunch of times, and she didn't really give herself abortions. According to a statement issued by Yale spokesperson Helaine S. Klasky, the entire stunt—Shvarts' press release, visual presentation, and narrative materials—was all part of Shvarts' real art project: Proving people are gullible weenies.

Actually, "gullible weenies" isn't the term that was used, but that's pretty much what it amounted to.

[LisaL]

38. I know Yale issued this statement, but she insists she actually

did do it.

[orleans]

28. ok--i see that it was a hoax but she's a fucking asshole for

making light of such a thing. performance art my ass. but hey, she got her fucking name in the paper and look how popular she is. (what's the next stunt gonna be by this sick puppy?)

i guess i'm feeling a bit judgmental tonight, eh?

[proud2BlibKansan]

32. I hear ya

It seems pretty disgusting to me. And I am really not a prude.

[LisaL]

39. Despite Yale saying it's a hoax, she is insisting she did do it.

[uppityperson]

44. Yes, she did do a project. Yes, she did some videos, and some other things.

No, it was not truly taking herbs to miscarry every month. She did a performance/visual art piece. What it shows isn't really what she said it did, that is the hoax part.

[LisaL]

47. That's not what she says.

[madmom]

29. My daughter is an art student, I'm glad she has more sense than that!

[OhioChick]

30. Real or Not....

That's pretty fucked up.

[-..__...]

33. Artificially inseminates herself, huh?

Now there's a certain imagery that I can't get out of my head... :smoke:

[rebecca_herman]

34. Ick

I hope it's a hoax... but even if it's a hoax, what kind of person even imagines the idea??? And if it's real... doing that to your body on purpose doesn't sound very healthy, it sounds pretty messed up and self destructive...

[renate]

35. look at me look at me look at me look at me look at me

(That could be the title for pretty much any performance art, of course.)

I have to admit, the idea is sort of... fascinating. I'm totally pro-choice, so why does this project, if it were real, make me want to :puke: ? I can't really defend my visceral reaction. After all, it's her body, and rights over one's own body are the basis for my pro-choice feelings. But even NARAL is offended. An interesting discussion could be had here.

But the deliberate offensiveness and narcissism--videos of miscarriages? get over yourself, Aliza--just seem puerile and attention-seeking.

[uppityperson]

37. It is pretty wild, isn't it?

Interesting discussions indeed. And I agree that performance art is about getting an audience to look at you.

[The Straight Story]

36. Whew - for a minute I thought you were gonna tell me she was smoking in a bar

:rofl:

[nosmokes]

45. You Go Girl!

I can't define it but I know it when I see it.


_Art

_Pornography