Aliza Shvarts: The Other Shoe Drops
April 18th, 2008 | researchmaterial
Statement by Helaine S. Klasky – Yale University, Spokesperson
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.
Well played, that woman.
is the award-winning creator of graphic novels such as 
Another great part about it is that she’s gotten off an entire year’s worth of work for just this one performance, so she’s essentially saved the grueling hell that a lot of people in her major are probably going through.
I mean, assuming someone doesn’t cut her uterus out of her just to keep her out of trouble.
–JPJ
Okay, I take it back. She’s utterly brilliant. Thank frick she hadn’t actually done this, this’d be exactly the kind of shit the pro-life crazies would pounce on and use to ride bullshit legislation through our legal system.
The nutjobs in my Bible thumper state of South Dakota are trying to force another ban through that would challenge Roe v. Wade’s constitutionality. As if the last one failing miserably won’t foreshadow the outcome of the new effort at all.
I’m not sure how to feel about this. If she had actually done as described, it would have truly been both provactive and thought-provoking. I’m sure that I wouldn’t have gone to see it, not because of politics but because of sheer body horror.
But now that she’s, what, recanted? Not sure if it places the emphasis back on the moral/social questions she’s asking or if people are going to be more interested in the brouhaha. Probably the latter.
But what an age we live in. Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, childbirth was the number one way for women to die. Number two: catching on fire. (See, they’d lean over and their dresses would catch alight and they’d burn . . .)
The pro-life crazies will never see the clarification, just the original press release. Expect much loud bible thumping on the subject on Sunday.
Daddy was right!
What annoys me most is that it had to get spoiled so quickly. If they had let it go just a few more days, it would have been incredible.
Now it’s just symptomatic of how easy it is to stir up a shit storm.
Cheeky moo. Still bet she can’t draw.
By which I mean whoops.
Even though the girl’s work was “designed to draw attention to the ambiguity surrounding form and function of a woman’s body,” I think it did a much better job at drawing attention to the sorry ass state of journalism that would allow this type of story to go forward without checking things out first. Despite the intended statement, I think this is a beautiful piece of art sending up media and the art world itself. Not only has she got brass elephant balls, I bet she’s a fucking riot at a party!
Will she make an art piece of the reactions to this revelation too? This is some recursive crap.
She must have three feet, because she just dropped another shoe claiming that it was all real. Apparently she’s sending videos of herself bleeding in the shower to news outlets.
Is she a hot new artist or a total moonbat?
My money is on moonbat.
Still, while I’ll except her behavior, and say she did pull a great one on a great many people, I find it hard to consider even her trick great art. It’s art yes, no one can claim otherwise and make a valid arguement, but even in performance art, are we to say “War of the Worlds” was a great radio show just because it freaked out a bunch of people and caused chaos and disorder? It does bring a smile to my face to think of such, and so does her stunt, but if it wasn’t at least half way decent of a radio drama to start, I hope it wouldn’t be remember to this day. Then again, I’m no authority to judge, maybe it’s just my taste.
I have to say that it’s always cool when an undergrad gets people outside of their immediate circle taking about the legitimacy of their work. Extending the dialog of “but is it art?” to a wider audience is always a commendable task. The real cool thing about Shvarts’s piece is that she got people talking about the legitimacy of one medium (miscarried fetuses) and then got the same group taking about the legitimacy of another medium (press releases about miscarried fetuses). I’ve always been a fan of the Guerrilla Girls(www.guerrillagirls.com) and it’s great to see work in their tradition.
Has anyone managed to find a link to any visuals of the performance/art?
FatherCrow
I liked it so far. It was entertaining and educational to see the reactions in the different communities. I never would have expected the religious types would pop up here.
Ah, now I get it: Lying to a gullible press is a form of art. The Bush White House is a modern day Sistine Chapel ceiling. Take that, “Lazlo Letters!”
Daddies, please pay attention to your little girls.
Apparently she’s sending videos of herself bleeding in the shower to news outlets.
All the videos are actually of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.”