Letters to the Editor
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Oh, the straight faces
Her supporters, as quoted by the Daily News, are shamelessly utilizing the "this is art, man, it's not my fault small minds can't comprehend the weighty questions involved." As usual, academia (or the academically-aspirant, in the artist's case) wants to convince us that an abstract, literally visceral project is more relevant, and will provoke better discussion, than 40+ years of the abortion discussion. As if countless, heartbreaking stories of teenage girls discarding fetuses in bathroom stalls and dumpsters is less compelling than one Eli with a turkey baster and a dream.
You know what? I don't care. I'm remaining unprovoked by anything other than the arrogances that would concoct this project, then po'-facedly protest that "it's just, like, artistic and thoughtful, not controversial." At least Beuys and Burden were honest about their aims. Unless she's a one-hit wonder, Shvarts is doomed to a half-life of succesful self-promotion in cloistered, endlessly-amused high-art circles. Surely this was her aim from the word go.