Vox

Art? Abortion as Art?

Well, it apparently passes for art in academia:

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.

Sick. Sad. Wrong. Tragic.

Unbelievable

UPDATE: I had my doubts when I first read this, but was persuaded by the publication of the story in the official Yale news. Perhaps I should doubt that, as well, and realize that a campus publication is even less likely to fact check than a traditional big city paper of record. Newsbusters certainly isn't buying it.

UPDATE: Several hours after my last update, the major news sites were still listing this story as true - then quickly changed it to "creative fiction" There are facts that seem to remain - "The stomach-turning display will be showcased next week — complete with depictions of blood samples and videos purportedly from the terminated pregnancies." "Shvarts described her project to the Yale paper as a huge cube hanging from the ceiling and swathed in plastic sheeting smeared with her blood from the reported miscarriages. Videos taken of what the college student claimed were self-induced abortions in her bathtub will be projected both on the cube's sides and on the gallery walls." She still seems to consider abortion, or at least the idea of it, artistic.

I stand by my early reaction: Sick. Sad. Wrong. Tragic.

The story has managed something, Pro and Anti abortion groups alike expressed their outrage and concern.

UPDATE: She claims it isn't "creative fiction" as Yale claims, but in fact that she "conducted artificial inseminations and carried out what she characterized as self-induced miscarriage procedures"

Posted by Vox at April 17, 2008 11:44 AM | politics