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Treat human life as a thing to discard at will


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For senior, abortion a medium for art, political discourse

Martine Powers

Staff Reporter

Published Thursday, April 17, 2008

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."

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.

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."

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.

http://yaledailynews.com/story.html

:no:

God forgive us.

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I would never hit a woman, but my I would hold this girl down while my wife beat the crap out of her.

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I don't think that I have ever been so disgusted by the actions of another human being in all my life as this.

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Crazy thing is, there are actually people out there who will find themselves utterly distraught when they hear of a puppy being tortured or mistreated that will at best feel mild discomfort over this.

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While I am pro-choice, I feel this project completely trivializes what I think is a very serious, difficult decision for a woman.

If her idea was to create a "conversation about art and the human body" there were a million other things that she could have done.

She is the only person that I hope never actually has children. We do not need any offspring created by that woman!

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She deserves jail time. Say what you want about pro-choice, blah, blah, blah. But she has just devalued human life the way a serial killer would. Psychotic. Disgusting. :puke:

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While I am pro-choice, I feel this project completely trivializes what I think is a very serious, difficult decision for a woman.

If her idea was to create a "conversation about art and the human body" there were a million other things that she could have done.

She is the only person that I hope never actually has children. We do not need any offspring created by that woman!

But it's the logical, albeit extreme, extension of pro-choice mentality. Essentially, a fetus or zygote is nothing more than a collection of cells until the moment it leaves the birth canal. With this in mind, the mother has total and complete sayso over the fate of the fetus. So if pregnancy means missing out on a vacation to Europe, she can abort (true story by the way). If pregnancy means not getting the promotion she wants at work, then abort. Or, you can abort as many times as you like to make a point about reproductive rights. See how bad it can get?

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This woman is just another in a long line of folks that are proving the Theory of Evolution wrong everyday.... :no:

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A statement from Yale indicates she didn't actually do this, thank God. I still wonder what kind of sick mind thinks up stuff like this:

New Haven, Conn. — April 17, 2008

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.

http://www.yale.edu/opa/

I think Flannery O'Conner said it best (adapted):

"Everywhere I go, I'm asked if the universities stifle writers artists. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them."

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What a sick human being! I pray that she is never allowed the joy of having children of her own.

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Now the question, did she really do this or not ? She SAYS she didn't, but why come out and claim you did in the 1st place ?

The 'idea' is avant guard enough, even w/ out having done it, so why claim you had ?

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This woman is just another in a long line of folks that are proving the Theory of Evolution wrong everyday.... :no:

Sorry for the sidebar, but Ben Stein believes Evolution. :P

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She said she did it, then realized there might be consequences and says she didn't....

Boy, I sure believe someone with the kind of morals she shows.

I pray that she some day sees the errors of her ways and begs God's forgiveness - but I somehow see that as doubtful. I think she's got a "bathtub" with her name on it in hell....

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No, she said she did it, Yale said she didn't, then she reaffirmed that she did. What consequences could their be to be afraid of? She's not going to jail, she didn't break the law.

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It's interesting what can be found on the web about this.

Ms. Shvarts outlined some of her personal philosophy as she took part in a performance art event Ms. Lindman organized earlier this month at Federal Hall in Manhattan, where members of the public were invited to stand on a soapbox and speak their piece.

“We have this huge f—ing institution telling us: ‘That’s what power looks like. That’s what empowerment looks like.’ It’s these patriarchal, heteronormative trappings of a voice, of a right to speak, but really I think we should think more about it,” the Yale student said, according to a video posted on YouTube but removed last night. “We need to stop being sheep.”…

The Federal Hall event was sponsored by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council with the “generous support of the September 11 Fund,” according to the video.

NY SUN

The September 11th fund closed down in 2004 after paying out to the victims, and the rest of their money is

…committed to construction projects in lower Manhattan and to arts and culture groups that will attract people to the neighborhood.

NY COMMUNITY TRUST

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