Art lessens

Yale fracas reveals devolution of artistic purpose | Gene Edward Veith

Here is what Aliza Shvarts did for her final art project at Yale: Every month, for nine months, she would artificially inseminate herself, then induce an abortion. She would then take the blood and smear it on plastic sheets, all of which she would wrap around a four-foot plastic cube. In the final installation, she would hang up the cube and project upon it videos of her doing these things to herself and to her unborn children. That would be her work of art.

Yale officials insisted that Shvarts did not really do what she says she did. It was actually "performance art" designed to create the very outrage it provoked. Others insisted that the work was a hoax, pointing to the impossibility of getting pregnant so many times. Nevertheless, Shvarts stuck by her claim (see "Sex and lies," May 17/24).