Yale student's art project draws shock, outrage
Sculptor asserts piece documents induced abortions
WASHINGTON - A Yale University student's senior art project, which documents her bleeding after what she said were repeated induced abortions, has sparked a horrified outcry on the Internet.
Senior Aliza Shvarts told the Yale Daily News that she wanted to provoke debate about the relationship between art and the human body, but that the intention of the piece was not to scandalize anyone.
When she presented a mock-up of the project in class last week - the final piece will go on display Tuesday at the undergraduate senior art show at Yale - some students were outraged. She told classmates she had herself artificially inseminated as often as possible, then took legal herbal abortifacient drugs and filmed herself in her bathtub cramping and bleeding from the miscarriages. Her work will include a sculpture using video, her blood mixed with Vaseline wrapped in plastic, and a spoken piece describing what she had done.
Within hours after the story ran in the student newspaper, blogs were full of livid reactions, including horror that so many fetuses were apparently aborted, revulsion at the graphic nature of the piece, shock that someone would risk her own health in such a way, and disdain for art and academia in general. One blogger offered an alternative installation: Vomit in Sock.
It was the talk of campus yesterday as well, several students said. Some questioned whether she had staged the whole thing for shock value. Some worried that it would trivialize abortion rights.
Senior Jonathan Serrato told The
"I believe that this 'art' can be interpreted as a mockery of those who would love to have children but are reproductively unable to do so," Serrato went on in his e-mail. "I also feel that it is especially disrespectful to those women who have truly suffered legitimate miscarriages, as I have seen someone very close to me experience this tragedy."
Late yesterday, Yale spokeswoman Helaine Klasky released the following statement: "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."
Juan Castillo, a senior art major who saw Shvarts present the work in progress, said in a telephone interview that her artwork has been oversimplified and sensationalized. "It's a much more complex project," he said, with a powerful message as well as technically polished and impressive sculpture.
He didn't want to put words in her mouth - she was not responding to requests for interviews yesterday - but said she had described it to the class as a feminist work.
"It's supposed to challenge the mythology of the body," Castillo said. "Are we only supposed to do what our bodies were 'naturally' meant to do, which is to procreate? It's both an argument for women's reproductive rights and, I guess, an argument for the acceptance of homosexual sex as well.
"I think she was definitely trying to spark conversation," Castillo said. "In that respect, she's accomplished her goal. But I don't know if she meant it to get this crazy, this out of control."
