Aliza Shvarts' Art Project

UPDATE, April 22, 2008: Yale Pulls Student's 'Abortion Art' Project From Exhibit Opening

Senior Aliza Shvarts' controversial piece still could be included in the student show, which runs through May 1, Yale officials indicated.

"Her exhibit is not on display, but it's unresolved as to whether it will be," said Yale spokesman Tom Conroy, suggesting discussions were in progress between the university and Shvarts.

Discussions?

This is ridiculous. Maybe Jimmy Carter can help resolve the matter.

Shvarts kept mum through the weekend and early this week despite the school's calls for her to confess that she lied in describing how she constructed the project. She didn't respond to repeated calls or e-mails requesting comment.

Yale officials warned that unless the art major agreed to say in writing that she hadn't told the truth about artificially inseminating herself and then taking herbal drugs to try to induce miscarriages, they'd yank her piece from the student exhibit, which opened Tuesday morning and closes May 1.

Does this mean she gets an A on her project?
___________________

UPDATE, April 21, 2008: Yale to Cancel Controversial 'Abortion Art' Exhibit Unless Student Admits It's Fiction
__________________

UPDATE: Shvarts maintains her facade. She claims it was not a hoax.

Blah, blah, blah.

Pull the curtain on this one. The performance is over.

My review: Despicable. GAME OVER, SHVARTS.

__________________


UPDATE: Hoax

__________________

I thought Susan Crane's "social experiment art project" was a bit extreme.

The assignment was to create a social commentary piece for a class with assistant art professor Kate Randall.

Starting about 6 a.m., students and employees walking through the student center [at University of Maine at Farmington] had to decide to either step around or step on the five, four-by-five-foot flags and the 3,000 small, handheld flags scattered over the floor. As part of her project, Crane videotaped people's feet to record their response.

"This is very emotional for me because it goes against a lot of my own beliefs about the flag," Crane said, her eyes tearing up, after holding her own against a verbal barrage.

"But I feel strongly that people should have the choice. That is what our country is all about. I expected controversy but not like this," she said.

It's not surprising that veterans and others found Crane's "social experiment" to be disrespectful.

In terms of eliciting a strong response, Crane's project pales in comparison to what a senior at Yale did.

Aliza Shvarts' senior art project is beyond shocking.

From the Yale Daily News:

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."

This is so degrading and repulsive that I am absolutely sickened.

How could this sort of "project" be sanctioned by Yale?

Not only did Shvarts put herself at great risk by repeatedly becoming pregnant and inducing miscarriages, she showed no respect whatsoever for life. ZERO.

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.

That is horrific.

Again, how could Shvarts' project advisor have signed off on this?

Shvarts "did not feel the need to consult a doctor about her repeated miscarriages."

How could her advisor have been aware of what she was doing and not demand that she be monitored by a doctor?

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."

It wasn't a "private and personal endeavor." Her multiple abortions were meant for public exhibition, artistic expression for public consumption.

Clearly, Shvarts is a disturbed individual. She is in dire need of medical care. Her body and mind needs to be thoroughly examined.

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.

This exhibition is going to be a circus. Shvarts' ghoulish freak show display is sure to dominate the Undergraduate Senior Art Show.

I feel sorry for the other seniors. Their works will be held hostage by Shvarts' submission.

I don't see how a project requiring the "artist" to have been in such physical peril would be displayed. The utter moral bankruptcy of the "artist's" project is jaw-dropping.

Does Yale have no rules or guidelines for the senior art project? I can't get over the lack of judgment shown by Shvarts' advisor.

I wonder if an art student would have been allowed to do a project like this:

The display will feature a large cube suspended from the ceiling of a room in the gallery of Green Hall. The student will wrap hundreds of feet of plastic sheeting around this cube; lined between layers of the sheeting will be the blood from the dogs and cats the student killed mixed with Vaseline in order to prevent the blood from drying and to extend the blood throughout the plastic sheeting.

The student will then project recorded videos onto the four sides of the cube. These videos, captured on a VHS camcorder, will show the student killing the dogs and cats in her bathrooom tub, she said. Similar videos will be projected onto the walls of the room.

Imagine the outcry, and rightly so. Of course, Shvarts couldn't get away with killing dogs and cats. Animal cruelty laws would kick in.

The fact that what Shvarts did was legal should give everyone pause.

Shvarts' art project sounds like a horrible Nazi experiment, an atrocity committed by a brutal regime.