Letters to the Editor
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Where were her advisors?
Seriously.
Why would a sane adult say to their student: "This is a great idea! Show me your first draft!"
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Urk...
Is this what passes for art now? It makes me long for the days when painting a naked lady at a picnic (Manet) was considered to be edgy and controversial.
Seriously, though, this girl sounds like she's batshit crazy. It's probably only a matter of time before she kills herself in another "artistic" stunt like this one.
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You can't put boundaries on art
Putting boundaries on art is some distance down the slippery slope of censorship. Even if these boundaries are just a millimeter down the slope, there's a lot that don't want to be on the slope at all.
Number me among them.
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No Sense + No Artistic Talent + Mental Health Problems = This Project
Being a really crap artist is going to be the least of Aliza Shvarts' problems.
Because I seriously question this girl's mental health.
I'm as pro-choice as you get, but this woman is disturbed on many levels.
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But is this art?
Is this art or exhibitionism?
In which case, does the student need a gallery or a shrink?
The stress that she has put on her body is appalling.
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Pro CHoice
I am very pro choice... but this woman is a phsyco! Digusting sick person... yuck. I am sure her parents are thrilled with their little darlin's talent!
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Absolutely Disgusting
Talk about a posterchild for the prolife movement! The reason why I read Salon is because it is liberal, but (mostly) sane. I believe in a woman's right to chose, and I think you made a really good point that that right can be abused. Creating fetuses for the sake of a self-agrandizing art project constitutes the utmost disrespect for our ability to create human life. I don't know if I would say it should be illegal, but it certainly makes me want to vomit.
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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.
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I'd like to see Roe v. Wade overturned because it is such crappy case law. Still, I am decidely lukewarm about my party's legislative attmepts to interfere in obstetrical care.
So I am not a good example of a pro-life ideologue.
But I do know this; whenever the Pro-Choice movement mentions the excesses (indeed, terrorism?) of someone like Randall Terry or Eric Robert Rudolph, there will be "Art major Aliza Shvarts, Yale '08..."
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Art students...
I'm from Baltimore and we just went through a city wide hatred of art students. This "art student" from the Maryland Institute of Art decided it was art to put what was, in essence, a long fence around the city's Washington Monument and surrounding parks. I am convinced this was done simply to piss us off and get an insane amount of attention...he was successful. I am convinced this idiot is going for a similar reaction with her "art." Jesus I hate art studens.
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Like, really really really gross
I am one of those people who really does make an attempt to understand the most abstract art. However, as you point out, there is a human ethic involved here that goes beyond art. I do support a woman's right to choose, but, to me, this does not mean a woman's right to choose to become pregnant in order to create an art project out of the aborted remains.
The only part of this report that I'm happy about is that it wasn't an NEA funded artist so at least we won't have to go back to that discussion again. Art truly is valuable in society, and even the craziest forms of it deserve to be supported by society; however, this particular project crosses an ethical line that can't possibly be considered art. It's not quite a "snuff" film, but it's pretty darn close to one.
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Gross and horrifying
That's all I need to say. Having had a baby (after getting unexpectedly pregnant and considering abortion) and learning what that all means and what it is, what a beauty and a joy it is to have this new life, I find it absolutely disgusting what this woman has done. I am shocked and horrified, and I rarely feel so strongly about many things.
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yikes
Man I just don't get art people, first the dude starving the dog and now this? Have you ever heard of that machine that makes poo? I'll take some Bob Ross pls.
One of the things that I imagine will bother people about this is the utter indifference if not outright contempt she has for her fetuses (feti???). I would imagine that even people who believe in a woman's right to choose would be disturbed by this, and if nothing else that has some artistic merit.
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To quote Sam Seaborn...
"I've done that a couple of times. I didn't know there was funding available."
But seriously, now. Ewwwwww.
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Let her put her money where her mouth is- carry it to term for an infertile couple
I am adamantly pro-choice, but if we are talking "art" lets up the ante. I propose Aliza Shvarts take this one step further- sure get inseminated in the name of art, document it, keep the fluids- AND CARRY THE FETUS TO TERM. There are so many infertile couples desperate for a child, or desperate for a surrogate. Put your money where your mouth is and make some real ART.
I can't imagine a more relevant statement about art and the human body than the documentation of gestation and birth.
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I can't believe it's not satire!
Seriously, is the Yale Daily News the new Onion? Is this a late April Fool's Joke? This woman is hurting the pro-choice movement (and America). This is what conservative fundamentalist pro-lifers believe all of us liberals do in the deepest pit of their imaginations, and now this woman is proving them right! Way to set us back a few years, Aliza!!!