Quote :

"For senior, abortion a medium for art, political discourse Martine Powers Staff Reporter Published Thursday, April 17, 2008 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. Shvarts declined to specify the number of sperm donors she used, as well as the number of times she inseminated herself. Art major Juan Castillo '08 said that although he was intrigued by the creativity and beauty of her senior project, not everyone was as thrilled as he was by the concept and the means by which she attained the result. "I really loved the idea of this project, but a lot other people didn't," Castillo said. "I think that most people were very resistant to thinking about what the project was really about. [The senior-art-project forum] stopped being a conversation on the work itself." Although Shvarts said she does not remember the class being quite as hostile as Castillo described, she said she believes it is the nature of her piece to "provoke inquiry." "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." 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. School of Art lecturer Pia Lindman, Schvarts' senior-project advisor, could not be reached for comment Wednesday night. Few people outside of Yale's undergraduate art department have heard about Shvarts' exhibition. Members of two campus abortion-activist groups . Choose Life at Yale, a pro-life group, and the Reproductive Rights Action League of Yale, a pro-choice group . said they were not previously aware of Schvarts' project. Alice Buttrick '10, an officer of RALY, said the group was in no way involved with the art exhibition and had no official opinion on the matter. Sara Rahman '09 said, in her opinion, Shvarts is abusing her constitutional right to do what she chooses with her body. "[Shvarts' exhibit] turns what is a serious decision for women into an absurdism," Rahman said. "It discounts the gravity of the situation that is abortion." CLAY member Jonathan Serrato '09 said he does not think CLAY has an official response to Schvarts' exhibition. But personally, Serrato said he found the concept of the senior art project "surprising" and unethical. "I feel that she's manipulating life for the benefit of her art, and I definitely don't support it," Serrato said. "I think it's morally wrong." Shvarts emphasized that she is not ashamed of her exhibition, and she has become increasingly comfortable discussing her miscarriage experiences with her peers. "It was a private and personal endeavor, but also a transparent one for the most part," Shvarts said. "This isn't something I've been hiding." The official reception for the Undergraduate Senior Art Show will be from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on April 25. The exhibition will be on public display from April 22 to May 1. The art exhibition is set to premiere alongside the projects of other art seniors this Tuesday, April 22 at the gallery of Holcombe T. Green Jr. Hall on Chapel Street."

conservative talk radio gold as well as liberal condemnation

best of both worlds

but hey it's america, free publicity

whatta reckless loon

4/17/2008 2:31:28 PM

Link? Also, I mean, DAMN.

4/17/2008 2:37:53 PM

That's got to be hard on the body.

4/17/2008 2:40:23 PM

Quote :

"Molly Clark-Barol, a Yale student and commenter on the YDH's website, sums up Shvarts's egocentrism better than I could: "Congratulations, Aliza Shvarts '08: you have single-handedly trivialized not only an entire generation and a half's fight to gain and retain the right to choose, through harassment and against massive odds, but also history of women's struggles, not only politically, but with the emotional, moral, and spiritual impacts of the choice to terminate a pregnancy. You also spit upon every couple who has tried, and failed, sometimes repeatedly, to have children. it is the emotional impact of these struggles, emotional impact that you shamelessly exploit, not explore, in your senior project."

http://jezebel.com/380897/yale-senior-undergoes-multiple-self+induced-miscarriages-in-the-name-of-art

4/17/2008 2:43:21 PM

Here's the link to the original article from Yale Daily News:

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

Quote :

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

I find this VERY hard to believe. Unless she's the most naive individual in the United States, there is no way she didn't know that she'd be setting off a firestorm with this exhibit. I'm pretty sure she's hoping that she'll have protesters there, just to draw further attention to herself and her work.

4/17/2008 3:38:48 PM

yeah i call horsehockey on her 'not for shock value' comments

she's got a guaranteed audience

4/17/2008 3:47:45 PM

she sounds like a twat

4/17/2008 3:50:52 PM

This at least ties with an outrageous "art/scholarly" project I posted on TWW a long time ago--I can't find the link now, though. Anyway, this guy supposedly shit into another guy's mouth for some kind of student project--on a campus somewhere, I think.

4/17/2008 3:52:44 PM

that's small potatoes compared to this

hell you can get people to pay to poop in their mouths

4/17/2008 3:59:50 PM

Quote :

"hell you can get people to pay to poop in their mouths"

PM sent

4/17/2008 4:00:40 PM

don't worry

everything will come out all right in the end

4/17/2008 4:05:17 PM

that's what she said

4/17/2008 4:06:31 PM

Sit and drink pennyroyal tea.....

4/17/2008 4:13:47 PM

Quote :

"I hope it inspires some sort of discourse"

What the hell kind of "discourse" was she hoping to inspire?

She is gonna burn in hell for sure, no matter which religion you look at it from pretty much.

4/17/2008 6:04:24 PM

^ What about the religions that don't believe in hell?

4/17/2008 6:11:58 PM

she would be one of the worst humans in those. [in all religions actually]

4/17/2008 6:24:10 PM

this is the most horrible thing I have ever read



the display



Aliza Shvarts

[Edited on April 17, 2008 at 7:18 PM. Reason : .]

4/17/2008 7:14:44 PM

AND ITS FAKE

A Yale University student's senior art project, which she claimed documented her bleeding during repeated self-induced abortions, sparked a protest on campus, an outcry on the Internet, and debates over morality, medicine, art and academia.

And -- it was all faked.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/17/AR2008041702519.html?hpid=moreheadlines

4/17/2008 7:26:19 PM

well, that's good to hear.

4/17/2008 7:51:44 PM

We all got trolled.

4/17/2008 8:04:59 PM

straight nutty

4/17/2008 8:07:00 PM

Wasn't that a great lesson on visual rhetoric, the power of the media, and sociopolitical discourse? No?! Yeah, me neither.

I think the "artist" just Shvart-ed on us.

4/17/2008 8:32:43 PM

awesome

kudos young lady

4/17/2008 8:33:13 PM

Bullshit. How much you wanna bet she's just claiming it's faked to get her ass out of trouble?

4/18/2008 3:00:36 AM

^

4/18/2008 7:32:01 AM

she's not claiming it's fake. The school is. THey say it's performance art. She says that it's real, and that the school sanctioned it but they'r erewriting the story in the face of media pressure. Yale says that her lying is a part of her performance art.

She showed videos to a media outlet, of her naked, and bleeding into a cup...



THIS IS ONE SICK FUCK EITHER WAY

4/18/2008 9:02:12 AM

i lold

4/18/2008 12:06:01 PM

http://yaledailynews.com/articles/view/24528

yeah this all smells a little fishy.

the university is saying its fake, she was never pregnant etc and talking up some crap about

Quote :

"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"

trying to put a PC spin on the project, and make it seem something it wasn't.

at the same time the wacko chick is saying:

Quote :

"But Shvarts reiterated Thursday that she repeatedly use a needleless syringe to insert semen into herself. At the end of her menstrual cycle, she took abortifacient herbs to induce bleeding, she said. She said she does not know whether or not she was ever pregnant. “No one can say with 100-percent certainty that anything in the piece did or did not happen,” Shvarts said, “because the nature of the piece is that it did not consist of certainties.” This afternoon, Shvarts showed the News 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. "

so she obviously tried to do it, and nobody knows if she was successful or not.

4/18/2008 2:16:33 PM

After reading her explanation of the project, I have to give her props. Postmodern ambiguity and questioning heteronormative structures for the win.

http://yaledailynews.com/articles/view/24559

Still seems pretty gross, though. We fleshbags are disgusting creatures.

4/19/2008 12:18:27 AM

fake or not the whole thing is sick and disgusting

she's not an artist, she's a lunatic.

[Edited on April 19, 2008 at 3:24 AM. Reason : ]

4/19/2008 3:24:30 AM

I suppose I'm not as quick to write off the entire human race as GoldenViper has been lately, but regardless, let me say:

I'm a proponent of free speech, obviously (I hope). From a legal standpoint, I'm all about this particular piece of "art." That said, this bitch is abhorrent to the point I wouldn't be willing to look upon her. Even my old archnemesis steve9194 has cogent enough reasons for being like he is. This fucking bitch wants attention and is willing to do abhorrent things to that end. May she always be allowed to express herself. May she also starve in a gutter before she gets a cent to support this filth.

[Edited on April 19, 2008 at 6:42 AM. Reason : It's not by accident that I used "bitch" and "abhorrent" so many times in this post, either]

4/19/2008 6:41:31 AM

Quote :

"Just as it is a myth that women are .meant. to be feminine and men masculine, that penises and vaginas are .meant. for penetrative heterosexual sex (or that mouths, anuses, breasts, feet or leather, silicone, vinyl, rubber, or metal implements are not .meant. for sex at all), it is a myth that ovaries and a uterus are .meant. to birth a child. When considering my own bodily form, I recognize its potential as extending beyond its ability to participate in a normative function. While my organs are capable of engaging with the narrative of reproduction . the time-based linkage of discrete events from conception to birth . the realm of capability extends beyond the bounds of that specific narrative chain. These organs can do other things, can have other purposes, and it is the prerogative of every individual to acknowledge and explore this wide realm of capability. "

this chick is wacked the fuck out. and u know she takes massive amounts of drugs. i wonder what her drug of choice is?

4/19/2008 10:17:22 AM

^ The quoted bit is my favorite part. I don't take drugs other than caffeine and chocolate.

Did the read the artist's statement I linked to, Grumpster? She has reasons that go well beyond simply wanting attention. Initially, I didn't see much point to the project. I was wrong. Her explanation is brilliant.

4/19/2008 8:05:20 PM

[Edited on April 19, 2008 at 11:03 PM. Reason : Nevermind, reposted an old link]

4/19/2008 11:02:41 PM

Quote :

"May she always be allowed to express herself. May she also starve in a gutter before she gets a cent to support this filth."

100% agreed!

***************

According to her, the following are "myths":

1) penises and vaginas are meant for penetrative heterosexual sex
2) ovaries and a uterus are meant to birth a child

She is obviously insane.

Aside from the fact that ovaries and uteri taste delicious, I think they were made for reproduction

4/20/2008 8:36:22 AM

This is sick any way you look at it.

4/20/2008 10:07:55 AM

^^ People have been using their genitals for things besides penetrative heterosexual intercourse for ages. Why are they meant specifically for the one act?

Regardless of supposed evolutionary purpose, you can use your body for whatever you please. We're not tied to our past unless we choose to be. That's what the her art attempts to convey.

Remember, evolution produced this project as much as it produced reproductive organs. Evolutionary processes created the brains people use to think about radical feminism and postmodernism.

4/20/2008 3:22:28 PM

I didn't say you HAVE to use your internal and external reproductive organs for some specific purpose. You can use them for whatever you want. For example:

1) You can cut off your penis and cook it and eat it.
2) You can hide drugs in your vagina and/or uterus.
3) You can use ovaries as paper-weights. [suitably preserved]

etc.

However, that does not change the fact that they were made for heterosexual reproduction.

4/20/2008 5:09:01 PM

I don't the artist intended to question their evolutionary function. Rather, I believe she meant to question the way people interpret this history a mandate. People are supposed to heterosexual intercourse. That type of thing.

Why place value on using organs as the species formerly used them?

[Edited on April 21, 2008 at 2:39 PM. Reason : why?]

4/21/2008 2:38:41 PM

Performance art with highly questionable props?

4/21/2008 2:43:44 PM