by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
(April 18, 2008) Yale University is embroiled in a controversy over an art major who planned to display a video documenting a nine-month process of artificially inseminating herself “as often as possible” then taking abortifacient drugs to abort the child. University officials are calling the whole thing a ruse, but the student is sticking to her story.
The uproar began when senior Aliza Shvarts told the April 17 edition of the Yale Daily News (YDM) that the goal of the exhibit was to spark conversation and debate on the relationship between art and the human body.
“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.”
Shvarts claimed that she used a needless syringe to repeatedly impregnate herself and would then take legal or herbal drugs to abort the babies. The whole process was captured on film and was going to be presented on a large cube suspended from the ceiling of the gallery. The cube would be wrapped in hundreds of feet of plastic sheeting with blood from her induced abortions lining the sheeting.
Once published, the YDM article caused a media frenzy that eventually overloaded the newspaper’s website and attracted attention from newspapers across the country. The University experienced more press inquiries than any matter since the controversy surrounding Yale’s admission of former Taliban diplomat Rahmatullah Hashemi in 2006.
School officials confronted Shvarts and claim she admitted the whole thing was a ruse.
“Ms. Shvarts is engaged in performance art,” said Yale spokeswoman, Helaine S. Klasky in a statement. “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.’”
While defending Shvarts right to express herself through performance art, Klasky states “Had these acts been real, they would have violated basic ethical standards and raised serious mental and physical health concerns.”
However, in the April 18 edition of the YDM, Shvarts is standing by her story and claims administrators backed her project before it began to attract national condemnation.
“I’m not going to absolve them by saying it was some sort of hoax when it wasn’t,” she said. “I started out with the University on board with what I was doing, and because of the media frenzy they’ve been trying to dissociate with me. Ultimately I want to get back to a point where they renew their support because ultimately this was something they supported.”
The University claims Shvarts denials are part of her “act”, but YDM reporters were actually taken to Shvarts studios and shown the exhibit. Apparently, the exhibit is exactly what Shvarts says it is – evidence of artificial insemination and abortion.
Few people want to see the display, however. Students on both ends of the abortion debate expressed shock over the project, saying it does everything from violate moral code to trivialize abortion.
Student Sara Rahman believes 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. It discounts the gravity of the situation that is abortion.”
Another student, Jonathan Serrato ‘09 said he personally found the project to be surprising and unethical. “I feel that she’s manipulating life for the benefit of her art, and I definitely don’t support it,” he said. “I think it’s morally wrong.”
Even if Shvarts project was what Yale administrators claim it was – a ruse – few people are laughing.
“I am appalled that Yale University would allow a student to use the tragedy of miscarriage and abortion as a practical joke and then call it ‘art.,” said Kristan Hawkins, Executive Director of Students for Life of America in response to the school’s statement.
“If a male art student would have released that he planned to exhibit condoms he used to rape multiple women in an effort to produce shock, the American people and pro-choice feminist groups across the country would have demanded that the student apologize for his grotesque behavior and be severely reprimanded or expelled from school.
“In fact, I doubt that Yale senior project professor would have even allowed the project to continue in the first place. Falsely announcing that one has taken several lives is unethical, and this girl has inflicted serious harm to the women of this country who have experienced the pain of miscarriage.”
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