Yale student abortion art controversy
Encyclopedia
Aliza Shvarts was a Yale University
art student who caused major controversy in 2008 for her proposed senior performance art
project. Shvarts currently attends NYU
, where she is pursuing a Ph.D in Performance Studies.
printed an article detailing the process by which Shvarts reportedly inseminated herself artificially
as many times as possible over the course of nine months, during which she also induced abortion
s using abortifacient drugs. The proposed exhibition of the project was to feature video recordings of the forced miscarriage
s as well as preserved collections of the blood from the process. Shvarts declared that the goal of the project was to spark conversation and debate on the relationship between art
and the human body.
"I believe strongly that art should be a medium for politics and ideologies, not just a commodity," Shvarts declared. "I think that I'm creating a project that lives up to the standard of what art is supposed to be." Fox News reported that Wanda Franz, President of the National Right to Life Committee
denounced Shvarts as a serial killer
with "major mental problems", and likened her process of artificial insemination and induced miscarriages to Nazi experiments during the Holocaust.
website, Yale College
issued a press release affirming that the miscarriages and exhibit were performance art. In the press release, the university spokesperson revealed that rather than the alleged cube of miscarried remains, the performance had consisted in the invention of the story of their creation. "Ms. Shvarts is engaged in performance art," it read. "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." Shvarts, in a guest article for the Yale Daily News maintained that she had conducted artificial inseminations as well as self-induced miscarriage procedures (although she was unaware of whether she was pregnant).
Robert Storr, dean of Yale's art school, threatened to ban Shvarts from displaying her project unless she wrote a confession attesting that the project was a fiction and that no human blood would be used.
in Los Angeles, where she won an award for "good leadership and good citizenship".
Feminist political commentator Amanda Marcotte
praised Shvarts because she "managed to demonstrate the logic that drives things like blood libel
s and witch-hunt
s, where a group believes the impossible because it confirms their irrational hatred for a person they've turned into The Other
."
Brown University bioethicist and abortion advocate Jacob M. Appel
wrote in the Washington Post that "the history of great art is one of controversy and outrage" and that Shvarts was "an imaginative and worthy heir to" Manet
and Marcel Duchamp
.
Shvarts' announcement of the art project was also hailed by science fiction author Charles Stross
as the "most inspired publicity-stunt debut in the art world since Damien Hirst
." Warren Ellis
concurred, claiming that Shvarts "might be the first “great” conceptual art
ist of the internet age."
Other commentators, however, condemned Shvarts's project as a "gruesome and pornographic idea" that had been (mistakenly) confused with art. This included both pro-life
and pro-choice
organizations. For example, Ted Miller, a spokesperson for the abortion-rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America
called the project "offensive and insensitive to the women who have suffered the heartbreak of miscarriage," and Wanda Franz, the president of the National Right to Life Committee
, called the project "depraved" and described Shvarts as "a serial killer."
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
art student who caused major controversy in 2008 for her proposed senior performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
project. Shvarts currently attends NYU
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, where she is pursuing a Ph.D in Performance Studies.
Initial reports
On April 17, 2008, the Yale Daily NewsYale Daily News
The Yale Daily News is an independent student newspaper published by Yale University students in New Haven, Connecticut since January 28, 1878...
printed an article detailing the process by which Shvarts reportedly inseminated herself artificially
Artificial insemination
Artificial insemination, or AI, is the process by which sperm is placed into the reproductive tract of a female for the purpose of impregnating the female by using means other than sexual intercourse or natural insemination...
as many times as possible over the course of nine months, during which she also induced abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
s using abortifacient drugs. The proposed exhibition of the project was to feature video recordings of the forced miscarriage
Miscarriage
Miscarriage or spontaneous abortion is the spontaneous end of a pregnancy at a stage where the embryo or fetus is incapable of surviving independently, generally defined in humans at prior to 20 weeks of gestation...
s as well as preserved collections of the blood from the process. Shvarts declared that the goal of the project was to spark conversation and debate on the relationship between art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
and the human body.
"I believe strongly that art should be a medium for politics and ideologies, not just a commodity," Shvarts declared. "I think that I'm creating a project that lives up to the standard of what art is supposed to be." Fox News reported that Wanda Franz, President of the National Right to Life Committee
National Right to Life Committee
The National Right to Life Committee is the oldest and largest pro-life organization in the United States with affiliates in all 50 states and over 3,000 local chapters nationwide. The group works through legislation and education to work against abortion, infanticide, euthanasia and assisted...
denounced Shvarts as a serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
with "major mental problems", and likened her process of artificial insemination and induced miscarriages to Nazi experiments during the Holocaust.
Yale College statement and rebuttal
Several hours after the initial story broke and a firestorm of press coverage brought down the Yale Daily NewsYale Daily News
The Yale Daily News is an independent student newspaper published by Yale University students in New Haven, Connecticut since January 28, 1878...
website, Yale College
Yale College
Yale College was the official name of Yale University from 1718 to 1887. The name now refers to the undergraduate part of the university. Each undergraduate student is assigned to one of 12 residential colleges.-Residential colleges:...
issued a press release affirming that the miscarriages and exhibit were performance art. In the press release, the university spokesperson revealed that rather than the alleged cube of miscarried remains, the performance had consisted in the invention of the story of their creation. "Ms. Shvarts is engaged in performance art," it read. "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." Shvarts, in a guest article for the Yale Daily News maintained that she had conducted artificial inseminations as well as self-induced miscarriage procedures (although she was unaware of whether she was pregnant).
Robert Storr, dean of Yale's art school, threatened to ban Shvarts from displaying her project unless she wrote a confession attesting that the project was a fiction and that no human blood would be used.
Aftermath
Subsequent testing revealed that no human blood was found in Shvarts' project, indicating that it was not the product of induced miscarriage. Shvarts subsequently submitted a different senior project to her department and graduated from Yale University in May, 2008.Context and reception
Previous artwork by Shvarts was published in Yale University student publication Dimensions: Undergraduate Journal of Art and Art History. Her 2006 piece, entitled Disarticulation, appeared in the Fall 2006 issue; it was a sculpture composed of plaster, vaseline, towels, rubber bands, and latex gloves. Prior to studying at Yale, Shvarts was a student at the Buckley SchoolThe Buckley School
The Buckley School is a college preparatory day school, founded in 1933 by Isabelle Buckley. It is located in Sherman Oaks, in the San Fernando Valley portion of the Los Angeles, California...
in Los Angeles, where she won an award for "good leadership and good citizenship".
Feminist political commentator Amanda Marcotte
Amanda Marcotte
Amanda Marie Marcotte is an American blogger best known for her writing on feminism and politics. Time magazine described her as "an outspoken voice of the left" and said "there is a welcome wonkishness to Marcotte, who, unlike some star bloggers, is not afraid to parse policy with her...
praised Shvarts because she "managed to demonstrate the logic that drives things like blood libel
Blood libel
Blood libel is a false accusation or claim that religious minorities, usually Jews, murder children to use their blood in certain aspects of their religious rituals and holidays...
s and witch-hunt
Witch-hunt
A witch-hunt is a search for witches or evidence of witchcraft, often involving moral panic, mass hysteria and lynching, but in historical instances also legally sanctioned and involving official witchcraft trials...
s, where a group believes the impossible because it confirms their irrational hatred for a person they've turned into The Other
Other
The Other or Constitutive Other is a key concept in continental philosophy; it opposes the Same. The Other refers, or attempts to refer, to that which is Other than the initial concept being considered...
."
Brown University bioethicist and abortion advocate Jacob M. Appel
Jacob M. Appel
Jacob M. Appel is an American author, bioethicist and social critic. He is best known for his short stories, his work as a playwright, and his writing in the fields of reproductive ethics, organ donation, neuroethics and euthanasia....
wrote in the Washington Post that "the history of great art is one of controversy and outrage" and that Shvarts was "an imaginative and worthy heir to" Manet
Édouard Manet
Édouard Manet was a French painter. One of the first 19th-century artists to approach modern-life subjects, he was a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism....
and Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. Considered by some to be one of the most important artists of the 20th century, Duchamp's output influenced the development of post-World War I Western art...
.
Shvarts' announcement of the art project was also hailed by science fiction author Charles Stross
Charles Stross
Charles David George "Charlie" Stross is a British writer of science fiction, Lovecraftian horror and fantasy. He was born in Leeds.Stross specialises in hard science fiction and space opera...
as the "most inspired publicity-stunt debut in the art world since Damien Hirst
Damien Hirst
Damien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur and art collector. He is the most prominent member of the group known as the Young British Artists , who dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s. He is internationally renowned, and is reportedly Britain's richest living artist,...
." Warren Ellis
Warren Ellis
Warren Girard Ellis is an English author of comics, novels, and television, who is well-known for sociocultural commentary, both through his online presence and through his writing, which covers transhumanist themes...
concurred, claiming that Shvarts "might be the first “great” conceptual art
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
ist of the internet age."
Other commentators, however, condemned Shvarts's project as a "gruesome and pornographic idea" that had been (mistakenly) confused with art. This included both pro-life
Pro-life
Opposition to the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-life, or anti-abortion, movement, a social and political movement opposing elective abortion on moral grounds and supporting its legal prohibition or restriction...
and pro-choice
Pro-choice
Support for the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-choice movement, a sociopolitical movement supporting the ethical view that a woman should have the legal right to elective abortion, meaning the right to terminate her pregnancy....
organizations. For example, Ted Miller, a spokesperson for the abortion-rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America
NARAL Pro-Choice America
NARAL Pro-Choice America , formerly the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws, then National Abortion Rights Action League, and later National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, is an organization in the United States that engages in political action to oppose...
called the project "offensive and insensitive to the women who have suffered the heartbreak of miscarriage," and Wanda Franz, the president of the National Right to Life Committee
National Right to Life Committee
The National Right to Life Committee is the oldest and largest pro-life organization in the United States with affiliates in all 50 states and over 3,000 local chapters nationwide. The group works through legislation and education to work against abortion, infanticide, euthanasia and assisted...
, called the project "depraved" and described Shvarts as "a serial killer."