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WARNING: The material below discusses a piece of "art" (term used loosely) who's subject and display is extremely graphic (the topic is abortion). It will probably disturb you. Decide very carefully if you want to go on reading.
For this, I get to trot out a favorite word of mine. Skullduggery. It means deception or false dealing.
This Yale student's abortion as art has gotten pasted around various f-lists of mine. I will warn you now that even the descriptions of it are grotesque, disturbing, and will trigger probably even the heartiest of you.
(I sound like one of those barkers at a carnival, daring you to come into a Ten-In-One to see the Three Legged Boy or something, don't I?)
And to ease your very visceral disgust, yes, it is a complete and utter fake. Although the use of the term "creative fiction" offends me as a writer.
I do creative fiction. This girl? Just FAILS.
I think that the only remotely intelligent thing about this piece is how it picked the perfect red herring. What better than the issue of abortion to distract people from the fact that your art is, as a piece of art, a complete failure?
For one, as performance art it failed. Yale telling people it was a fake ruins the element of belief she needed. Which is like having part of your statue chiseled off. Actually, it's like having your statue bulldozed over.
Luckily for us, it was hideous and rather stupid to begin with. It wasn't like the Pieta got crushed or anything. As far as I'm concerned, this entire thing deserves to leave skid marks on the bowl.
Shvarts went about this in a way that can only be described as Epic Fail. She didn't just climb aboard the failboat, she is now captaining it and navigating us through the murky waters of her talentless hackery.
I'd use more intelligent terms, but Shvarts obviously doesn't want us using our brains. Because anyone who did wouldn't need Yale to announce that this is a fake. Any woman who's gone through pregnancy, abortion, or miscarriage can tell you what a badly told lie this entire thing is. Or anyone who knows any of the basic facts of reproduction and how, it's not as simple as inserting Tab A into Slot B, set on 98.6 degrees for nine months and wait 'til the timer dings. (I'm not sure what preheating the oven would mean in this metaphor and I don't think I want to, BTW).
It's actually a very complex and uncertain process.
So there's another mark against Shvarts. She, being at Yale, couldn't even borrow a medical student for five minutes so they could fact check her project.
As a political statement, it was ham-handed and stupid. Trust me, getting people to discuss abortion and think about it is easy. Just ask. Seriously, you could've gotten a LOLcat looking very seriously at an audience with the caption "your feelings on abortion, tell me thems" and gotten the same result. With less harm done and less people getting nauseous.
But there's good news in all this.
Firstly, there's the fact that in about ten minutes, the lampooning of Shvarts is going to start and will eventually end with her trudging off into obscurity as just another Weird Thing that we all got interested in for a week and then never talked about again. She is now the William Hung of art, I think. Except William Hung at least had a positive message of "believe in yourself, even if everyone thinks you suck!". Shvarts has no upside.
Secondly, the debate I've seen (pro-life and pro-choice) alike seem to agree that this is disgusting, absurd, and not to be made part of the debate.
Thirdly, Shvarts is going to karmically get hers back for this. I don't think that anyone is ever going to take her seriously as an artist. Which is not to say that some gallery owner in NYC (I love this city because it proves that Rich White People will call anything art and pay oodles for it) won't take her on. It just means that when we tally up the art that mattered in our age? Shvarts won't be on the list. She'll be among the little historical obscurities that make future historians wonder what the hell was in our water. Nothing more.
Not to mention the personal affect this will have on her. Can you imagine any future partners/children she might have?
Why yes, it does make me cackle.
So, the best thing I think we can do is get this out of our systems. Mock Shvarts for her attention grabbing stunt and it's failure, express our disgust, and move on with our lives.
As for the abortion debate, the best thing we can do for it is try our best to discuss it, as a society, with intelligence, respect, compassion, and reason. None of which Shvarts' little spectacle has.
For this, I get to trot out a favorite word of mine. Skullduggery. It means deception or false dealing.
This Yale student's abortion as art has gotten pasted around various f-lists of mine. I will warn you now that even the descriptions of it are grotesque, disturbing, and will trigger probably even the heartiest of you.
(I sound like one of those barkers at a carnival, daring you to come into a Ten-In-One to see the Three Legged Boy or something, don't I?)
And to ease your very visceral disgust, yes, it is a complete and utter fake. Although the use of the term "creative fiction" offends me as a writer.
I do creative fiction. This girl? Just FAILS.
I think that the only remotely intelligent thing about this piece is how it picked the perfect red herring. What better than the issue of abortion to distract people from the fact that your art is, as a piece of art, a complete failure?
For one, as performance art it failed. Yale telling people it was a fake ruins the element of belief she needed. Which is like having part of your statue chiseled off. Actually, it's like having your statue bulldozed over.
Luckily for us, it was hideous and rather stupid to begin with. It wasn't like the Pieta got crushed or anything. As far as I'm concerned, this entire thing deserves to leave skid marks on the bowl.
Shvarts went about this in a way that can only be described as Epic Fail. She didn't just climb aboard the failboat, she is now captaining it and navigating us through the murky waters of her talentless hackery.
I'd use more intelligent terms, but Shvarts obviously doesn't want us using our brains. Because anyone who did wouldn't need Yale to announce that this is a fake. Any woman who's gone through pregnancy, abortion, or miscarriage can tell you what a badly told lie this entire thing is. Or anyone who knows any of the basic facts of reproduction and how, it's not as simple as inserting Tab A into Slot B, set on 98.6 degrees for nine months and wait 'til the timer dings. (I'm not sure what preheating the oven would mean in this metaphor and I don't think I want to, BTW).
It's actually a very complex and uncertain process.
So there's another mark against Shvarts. She, being at Yale, couldn't even borrow a medical student for five minutes so they could fact check her project.
As a political statement, it was ham-handed and stupid. Trust me, getting people to discuss abortion and think about it is easy. Just ask. Seriously, you could've gotten a LOLcat looking very seriously at an audience with the caption "your feelings on abortion, tell me thems" and gotten the same result. With less harm done and less people getting nauseous.
But there's good news in all this.
Firstly, there's the fact that in about ten minutes, the lampooning of Shvarts is going to start and will eventually end with her trudging off into obscurity as just another Weird Thing that we all got interested in for a week and then never talked about again. She is now the William Hung of art, I think. Except William Hung at least had a positive message of "believe in yourself, even if everyone thinks you suck!". Shvarts has no upside.
Secondly, the debate I've seen (pro-life and pro-choice) alike seem to agree that this is disgusting, absurd, and not to be made part of the debate.
Thirdly, Shvarts is going to karmically get hers back for this. I don't think that anyone is ever going to take her seriously as an artist. Which is not to say that some gallery owner in NYC (I love this city because it proves that Rich White People will call anything art and pay oodles for it) won't take her on. It just means that when we tally up the art that mattered in our age? Shvarts won't be on the list. She'll be among the little historical obscurities that make future historians wonder what the hell was in our water. Nothing more.
Not to mention the personal affect this will have on her. Can you imagine any future partners/children she might have?
Why yes, it does make me cackle.
So, the best thing I think we can do is get this out of our systems. Mock Shvarts for her attention grabbing stunt and it's failure, express our disgust, and move on with our lives.
As for the abortion debate, the best thing we can do for it is try our best to discuss it, as a society, with intelligence, respect, compassion, and reason. None of which Shvarts' little spectacle has.
