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Prior days' news: By date | Search This week's print issue Back issues: By date | Search April 21, 2008Yale U. Says Student Must Acknowledge Her Artwork Is FictionA Yale University art student who has claimed that she videotaped her own self-induced abortions will not be allowed to display an art project about the abortions unless she acknowledges that the project is “fiction,” university administrators announced today. The project, by Aliza Shvarts, a senior art major at Yale, started an uproar on the campus and in the blogosphere, and a debate over whether her project should be protected by artistic freedom. It is supposed to go on display tomorrow in Yale’s Holcombe T. Green Jr. Hall. Ms. Shvarts has created confusion and angered Yale officials by telling Yale’s student newspaper that the abortions really happened, but then acknowledging to administrators that the project was merely “performance art.” Ms. Shvarts has told the Yale Daily News, in interviews and in an essay she wrote that was published Friday, that she artificially inseminated herself and then used herbs to induce abortions. For her senior thesis in art, she said she would suspend from the ceiling a giant cube wrapped with sheets that are marked with blood from the abortions. She also planned to show videotapes that she said were filmed as she induced the abortions in her bathroom. In the essay, Ms. Shvarts said the project was about ambiguity and about myths of a woman’s body, including the “myth that ovaries and a uterus are ‘meant’ to birth a child.” Peter Salovey, dean of Yale College, said in today’s statement that he and the dean of the university’s School of Art, Robert Storr, had taken “appropriate action” against two individuals who had overseen Ms. Shvarts’s project. He did not identify the individuals, although the Daily News said one of them is believed to be Ms. Shvarts’s adviser, Pia Lindman, who is a first-year lecturer in the university’s School of Art. —Robin Wilson Posted on Monday April 21, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
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Taste evidently is something that students do not learn through Higher Education.
— Al Apr 21, 02:36 PM #
Can 160 million IUD users be wrong?
— JA Apr 21, 03:18 PM #
Artists can do what they like but institutions don’t have to show it or condone it. Yale should never have approved the show in the first place, and this “artist” needs some help in the form of therapy and meds. Hiding behind bland and cliched statements about looking into the ambiguity surrounding women’s bodies (please…) shouldn’t get you a pass to “perform” your own sickness. If someone displayed body parts and claimed to have murdered the “contributors,” wouldn’t that person be locked up, whether it was the truth or not? An appalling falling off from intelligence and judgment. Let Shvarts peddle her crap in the meat-packing district.
— Will D. Apr 21, 03:34 PM #
Wish I’d known about those herbs when I was in college!
— E. Gibbs Apr 21, 03:55 PM #
Will D wrote: “Artists can do what they like but institutions don’t have to show it or condone it.” For days I have been amazed at the sloppy thinking of many commentators on this story. If Yale or any other college is truly dedicated to free inquiry, open exploration, seeking new information, and so on and so on, then it cannot at the same time tell people not to “go there.” Yes, crap will sometimes be produced under these circumstances, but so will some gems (probably not in this case). Short of harming others, disrupting the campus, and similar extreme limitations, you have to take what you get, the offensive and sophomoric included. That’s the price you pay for getting the occasional breakthrough. I am appalled at those who want it both ways – supporting academic freedom but applying their own personal standards to limit what others choose to do. Sorry. Yale should let the show go on; we’ll learn more than if this had never happened. Cheers….
— Bill Apr 21, 03:57 PM #
Aliza Shvarts’ Yale liberal arts and sciences education has indeed prepared her to be a cutting edge artist. Whether university officals or persons unaffiated with Yale agree with, or abhor Ms. Shavarts’ art doesn’t matter. What matters is the attention this documentary art form has drawn, a key element of good art.
One of the most politized issues of the late twentieth, and early twenty-first centuries, abortion remains high on everyone’s list of concerns from a woman’s right to make decisions about her body, to the essence of when a human life begins, or ends.
Kudos to Ms. Shvarts for her unquestionably successful senior art show. As long as the video is indeed fiction. If not, then New Haven authorities need to step foward and take appropriate action. Art can never cross the line. Getting close to the line, however, can evoke feelings of pain and grief, something good art without question, does.
— JR Apr 21, 04:02 PM #
The caveat is now a part of the work. Brilliant.
— first marci Apr 21, 04:05 PM #
Well stated JR.
— Derek Apr 21, 04:06 PM #
Ars artis gratia? Maybe ad absurdum!
— Dave Apr 21, 04:07 PM #
JR, I was about to commend your post until I read “As long as the video is indeed fiction. If not, then New Haven authorities need to step forward and take appropriate action.” Last I heard, abortion was still legel, even in New Haven.
Bill (post #5), thanks for a thoughtful and grown-up response to all the uproar.
— barbara Apr 21, 04:14 PM #
Lux et veritas, indeed.
— pj Apr 21, 04:23 PM #
Sorry, Bill, Yale can indeed tell a student not to “go there.” Every MFA candidate has an advisor and a thesis committee. Any number of people could have told her, “you do not have my approval to pursue this” and stopped it right there.If she failed her thesis class, and didn’t get the credits she paid for, you can bet she’d have come up with another idea.
— RM Apr 21, 04:28 PM #
Yeah, JR, I’m with barbara. Just what “appropriate action” do you have in mind? Health codes, maybe? I’m not critical, just curious as to what you’re thinking.
— Jim Apr 21, 04:31 PM #
If it is true that a “first-year lecturer” advised this thesis then the art program is admitting to extreme dereliction and laziness. If a senior project is expected to be taken seriously then a permament member of the faculty, preferably one with a little more experience than one year should be involved.
— TS Apr 21, 04:37 PM #
Several people have mentioned that “as long as no one is hurt” artistic expression must be protected.
However, no one has mentioned the fact that, if indeed these were real abortions, then this person would be intentionally creating life just to destroy it. I am pro-choice, but this goes beyond that.
I don’t think that a simple request from Yale asking the student to verify that indeed no one was harmed in the creation of her “artwork” is hampering academic freedom. Because the alternative is just so inhumane.
— -Jessie M Apr 21, 04:39 PM #
What exactly did Ms. Shvarts get out of this project in terms of education? And it’s lucky for Yale that they have plenty of wealthy alumni willing to keep donating for this kind of garbage. I agree 100% with RM & TS. This sort of thing makes me more and more glad I didn’t send any of my kids to Yale.
— Deborah Apr 21, 04:52 PM #
Apparently lost in this conversation is the fact that Ms. Shvarts falsified the nature of the project and the results. She claimed the project was a true experience when it was fiction. If that happened in the sciences, she would have been drummed out of school for fabrication of data. I would think this is no different than passing off a piece of work as an original photograph when it was created in Photoshop. That’s where Yale is missing the point. This is about fabrication of a thesis project, regardles of whether or not you agree with the project.
— Henry Apr 21, 05:09 PM #
RM wrote: “Sorry, Bill, Yale can indeed tell a student not to “go there.” Every MFA candidate has an advisor and a thesis committee. Any number of people could have told her, “you do not have my approval to pursue this” and stopped it right there.If she failed her thesis class, and didn’t get the credits she paid for, you can bet she’d have come up with another idea.”
Yes, as a private institution is can indeed say “don’t go there.” But there’s a vast difference between what schools CAN do and what they SHOULD do. ANd Yale, if it wants to be true to the tenets of inquiry and academic freedom, should censure only in cases of threats to individuals or the campus. As far as I can tell, she’s pushed a lot of boundaries and buttons, but she hasn’t harmed others nor broken the law. There’s a large gulf between what most people like and what a modern university should permit.
— Bill Apr 21, 05:13 PM #
As Jessie (#15) notes, the creation of life simply to destroy it is deeply troubling, and most review boards would not approve. One basic question no one has answered is whether the proposal was reviewed and approved by an IRB. If the project is in fact real (rather than fiction) and the faculty advisor didn’t insist on having it vetted by such a body, then she should be dismissed. The University’s oversight procedures for senior theses clearly needs to be revised.
Geoff
— Geoff Apr 21, 05:15 PM #
Ms. Shvarts is one pathethic young woman. How sick our society has become when academics routinely justify such death-exalting behavior as protected by academic freedom.
— NTS Apr 21, 05:27 PM #
I’m with Geoff (#19). One can’t survey student opinions about the food preferences for a psyc class without IRB approval, but one risk one’s own health by self-administering drugs (herbs are drugs) and the University can say nothing? Next time I need to take a survey I’ll skip IRB and call it “art.”
— drj50 Apr 21, 05:34 PM #
I think #12 hits the nail right on the head. The point for me is not whether or not it is art. The point is that an advisor evidently gave the go-ahead to a project in which a human subject (in this case, the artist herself) was given herbs sufficiently toxic to induce miscarriage, just to create what is loosely labeled “art.” If this were research instead of an art project, the institution’s human subjects research review board would never have let it pass, because the benefit does not in any way justify the risk. Sounds like her advisor was asleep at the switch.
— Michele Apr 21, 06:30 PM #
Apparently pro-choice and pro-life agrees that a woman should only have control over her body within the confines of ‘socially acceptable’. She has bridged the gap between these seemingly intractable ideologies.
So apparently the adviser gave the go-ahead. If this is the case then the students academic career should not be impacted.
Is this art? The amount of thought and passion this is evoking makes me think it is. I certainly don’t like most of what is present in museums, but me liking something does not make it art (or not art).
I find it interesting that both sides of the abortion rights debate are against this woman’s actions.
Either a woman has control over her own body and reproductive organs, or she doesn’t. The ‘pro-choicers’ seem to think that there are appropriate things that people can do with their own reproductive organs and that it is societies job to dictate what those are. How odd.
Some discuss ‘dangerous drugs’, unless they are on campus actively working to stop alcohol abuse, I don’t think their objections are sincere.
Its disturbing that all (virtually all?) of the university officials that have spoken out against her have been men. One explains that he is pro-choice, while apparently simultaneously holding the belief that she shouldn’t be allowed to do this to herself.
While I am pro-choice myself, I can’t help but believe that the only people coming out looking good in this story (other than the artist) are the pro-life folks (who are at least consistent in their condemnation of women controlling their own bodies).
While I don’t think I’d see this exhibit, I don’t how understand how anyone can claim this is not art.
Finally, regarding ‘falsifying’: if she didn’t take pregnancy tests (to help ensure ambiguity) and ambiguity was always part of the art. I imagine (and could be wrong here) the university was grasping for deniability (the cowards).
I understand what it means to falsify data or research in pursuit of science, but exactly does one go about falsifying art? (short of forgery).
What should happen? Give the woman full marks – an ‘A’ for the project. Yale has already shown its true colors, and there is no need to allow free speech or controversial art. The adviser should probably move on to a university that is more appropriate for her. I’m glad I didn’t graduate Yale, I’d be ashamed.
EO
— eo Apr 21, 07:02 PM #
Thank God for State Schools! What a freakin’ moron.
— Mary Apr 21, 07:21 PM #
Thank you, thank you, thank you EO!
Exactly my thoughts. And yet another instance showing what century people (the commenters) really are living in.
— s Apr 21, 07:34 PM #
Hey, suppose some guy at Yale decides to whack his pee pee in the name of art…you know, a birth control statement. And then he says, “Nah nah na nahhh nah…I was foolin’…I didn’t really whack my pee pee.”
Don’t know about you, but as a patron of the arts, I’d feel cheated. I mean, dude…art’s art!
— Ron Apr 22, 05:28 AM #
All this debate just makes one thing more certain. By doing something controversial with little or no artistic value this student has raised her profile and now has a better chance of becoming a ‘celebrity modern artist’ producing more works that really shouldn’t be inflicted on the world at large.
— Liu Xiaoxian Apr 22, 06:06 AM #
I have to disagree with you again, Bill, as to your argument of what an institution CAN do vs. SHOULD do. If their job is merely to greenlight, in the name of artistic freedom, every moronic idea that cames across their desks, why have advisors or committees at all? Just have the MFA candidate work entirely on their own up until the exhibition, and then as long as they exhibit SOMETHING, (Blank canvases, something they bought at the store the day before (“found art”), maybe even nothing at all) they pass, and get their coveted degree. “In olden days a glimpse of stocking…”
— RM Apr 22, 06:23 AM #
Whether she was pursuing fame, an education, or art, this student has deliberately killed off other lives. I don’t care whether abortion is legal; instead, what I care about is a society which argues that “legal” is the same as “ethical.” Causing loss of life in the name of art cheapens both life and art.
Does she have the right to do as she pleases with her body? Not any more than I do.
— P. England Apr 22, 07:57 AM #
If she was killing animals would people be more upset?
— River M Apr 22, 08:14 AM #
The controversy surrounding this only reinforces the free pass that many people get for any degree of activity as long as they are careful to label it “art” in the first place. “Art can never cross the line” says JR. By this logic, someone could walk into the middle of the New Haven Green and begin attacking themselves with a razor, and as long as they termed it “art” then everyone would be powerless to stop it? Assuming the mantle of art to protect one’s self from criticism or censure is an abuse of art and the entire academic environment in which art is allowed to thrive. If, EO, you really can’t “understand how anyone can claim this is not art”, I would advise you to pick up some books on Michaelangelo, Bernini, Frida Kahlo, and Howard Stern. The first three would teach you about art, and the last would teach you about ludicrous displays designed only for attention’s acquisition. Such crass attempts at self-promotion as Shvarts has here attempted have a place all around this world, but I for one am glad that Yale has said there is no place for it there.
There are certain standards to which an institution holds itself and by which it presents its face to the world. If Yale stands up and says this manner of project will not be allowed, they reinforce their own identity as a place where lines are drawn and standards enforced. The problem seems to stem from the fact that nobody told Shvarts her idea was simply bad. It reminds me of a comment I once read about creative writing workshops, where most students go there not to learn how to write better, but only be told they already write well. Shvarts’ advisers needed to tell her to come up with something better. Now that they and their student have failed, it is up to Yale to clean up the very real mess.
— SPCM Apr 22, 08:23 AM #
I have a problem with this work if the initial claims are true. If they are not true, I have a problem with the falsifications, but not the piece itself.
If the artists claims are true, then she is self-destructive and needs help (just like if someone was cutting themselves and painting with the blood to make a statement about depression). If it were red ink (or even blood from a butchered food animal), I would have no problem with the piece.
If the claims are false, then she is guilty of academic dishonesty (art or not, it is being studied academically).
If the claims are true, and the adviser knew in advance, then the adviser is guilty of not getting help for a troubled student.
If the claims are false and were not presented to the adviser, than the adviser has done nothing wrong.
— a different Dan Apr 22, 09:05 AM #
I like this: “If she was killing animals would people be more upset? — River M, #30
Of course “abortion art” is an ugly political statement. Normally, this student should have been given failing grade and removed from the university, because art is to please people, not to make people nauseating. This student deliberately profaned her task. A university cannot give her a degree for that.
Of course, it is not true, as some said, that attracting attention is a sign of good art. Only attracting attention by its beauty is the sign of good art.
Needless to say that one who does not have and does not have any hope to have a talent or ability to create art would go to pervert and falsify the noble purpose of art and go to present political statement as art. Apparently, the lesson of nazi art and, preceeding it, the abstract/modern/communist art fraud, was not learned.
— Michael Pyshnov Apr 22, 09:11 AM #
What a sick individual. I am horrified by this and by abortion, period and yet, this is a result of society’s callousness toward the unborn child. The unborn child is easily discarded or used as embryonic tissue for stem cells so why shouldn’t this student carry that thinking out to an extreme? This is the bed we have made. Lie in it.
— ysgrifennu Apr 22, 09:28 AM #
Henry (Response 17) makes a great point that the Ms. Aliza Shvarts originally claimed that she did in fact artificially inseminate herself and took herbs to induce an abortion after she became pregnant. It is only after her actions became controversial that Ms. Shvarts retracted her original statement and then informs her advisor, Yale’s board of directors, and the mass media that her work is purely an act of fiction. Had this project never come under scrutiny Ms. Shvarts probably would have continued to claim that the blood and the video was real.
It seems to me that this is a clear instance of deliberate falsification, which is an unacceptable act in the academy and is not protected under academic freedom. If a student in any discipline were to write a paper and left large passages uncited, unreferenced, or unquoted we would appropriately label it “plagiarism.”Similarly, Ms. Shvarts’work should not be praised and approved just because it pushes the boundaries of free inquiry. It should be condemned and rejected for clearly violating her academic integrity. There are many people who have pushed the limits of what is art and they have done so without lying or deceiving the populous. I think it that it not too much to expect the same of any college student, especially one that is attending an Ivy League university.
— GeorgeWill Apr 22, 09:32 AM #
I am finding it difficult locating sense in many of these responses. The power of the work (and our reaction) depends on the belief that what we see is real and true, so the artist’s claims, even false, are the right ones for an artist to make. That the claims are or may be false may salve the moral and/or aesthetic consciences of some, but settling the point of the verity does not detract from the fact that the power of the work itself depends on our belief in its truth. Given that, an artist should be free to push our belief in that reality. Whether a student should be allowed to make or a university should tolerate such a statement or work by a member of its community, true or false, is a separate question. I don’t think that either the student or the university can gain anything by a moral judgement either for or against their actions. But this debate is not about them. Most of these comments are about us, our values and not about any meaningful understanding about students, universities, or even art.
— David Apr 22, 09:41 AM #
One of the interesting critiques which is now coming in the above statements is that the problem is the “deception” used by the artist in first saying this was real then stating that it was not. I seem to recall numerous incidents of faculty using an act of aggression in the classroom to get studetns to understand the problems of recalling events during stress; ie: someone enters the room and shoots another, only to reveal later that the entire event was staged. I don’t know if these acts, frequesntly depicted in fiction and movies, really happened. If they did are they also as problematic as this charade? Is charade ever an appropriate technique to elicit learning? Just asking.
— Question?? Apr 22, 09:43 AM #
Re comment #7: if that’s what makes this brilliant, then the PR guru s,who can pull the levers of mass media, are in competition to be the next Picasso.
— Micah Apr 22, 10:01 AM #
It is totally irrelevant whether Shvarts’s story accompanying her “work” is true or false. One does not present a work of art with the story attached. It is quite ridiculous that Yale pays attention to the story and makes the whole thing rotating around the story. And the comments here discussing the Shvarts’s story are equally IRRELEVANT! It only shows how much ignorant people became under the heavy blows of communist propaganda about the social role of art and the like “explanations” of art.
— Michael Pyshnov Apr 22, 10:06 AM #
If the herbs had only succeeded in deforming the child rather than miscarrying it (fact or fiction), would that be appropriate to include in the display as well? Sick.
— ED Apr 22, 10:20 AM #
It is equally irrelevant whether the piece of art is “moral” or “immoral”, but in the latter case it should not be shown to children. If its immorality detracts from the art as such, that of course would matter, but the judgement of art must be about its quality, not anything else. Not a single word of the story is about the quality of her art, and naturally, I suppose that everyone agrees it was not even made as an art.
— Michael Pyshnov Apr 22, 10:21 AM #
Personally, falsified or not, I find her project’s statement compelling. Gross, yes. But still compelling. I’m not interested in performing the same actions to explore these ideas myself, of course, but I’m glad she did. Brave woman.
— lise Apr 22, 12:00 PM #
I find these comments to be as revealing as the preceding fight over what this artist “must” do.
Ironically, since I disagree wtih them, I most respect those who have posted their disturbance at the destruction of life. At least there is a chance that such people are responding from something deeper than their conditioning, although that is by no means guaranteed.
Most striking to me is the extent to which the system, via public opinion (“taste,” “morality,” etc.)and the institution of Yale University, seeks to control and contain the divine act of creating and destroying life—frankly something very mundane and natural for most women.
Svarts, however, has transformed this awesome, if ordinary, natural power into art by intentionally and publically presenting it.
“How dare she refuse to pretend to be a powerless cow?” That’s the outcry I’m hearing. “Why won’t she she represent herself as a happy robot identified with a particular brand of diet soda? If not that, why won’t she at least re-create the work of Jackson Pollack since at least that way we can ignore her? But really, why won’t she create something that would go with my living room couch? Now that’s taste!”
If Yale can’t handle actual art because it is too much a toddy of the system that seeks to make slaves of “free citizens,” so much the worse for Yale.
And if you are so invested in your slavery that real freedom scares you, so much the worse for you.
— Eric Peterson c/o The Tequihua Foundation Apr 22, 12:25 PM #
“The power of the work (and our reaction) depends on the belief that what we see is real and true….”
So Hamlet has no power unless the reader thinks it’s literal history, ghost and all? I think not.
Creating life for the sole purpose of destroying it is unethical.
Inscribing your ideology on a two-by-four and hitting people over the head with it is, at best, very bad art.
— CatherineR Apr 22, 01:24 PM #
Is writing a senior thesis also potentially a work of art? If so, should different academic standards be applied to writing than to “art?”
— Carl Apr 22, 03:03 PM #
Seeing such degree of dishonesty, when someone is trying to pass politics as art, another possibility should be considered, namely, is there a relative of hers that sells abortion inducing herbs? Yale must take this seriously, it could be a horrible case of “conflict of interest”. I tried to google “shvarts herb” but there are many thousands of such entries now.
— Michael Pyshnov Apr 22, 03:35 PM #
Our Founders loved liberty, but thought it appropriate for government and society to halt license, the abused, extreme form of liberty—license as in licentiousness. This episode is one of licentiousness—not artistic liberty, but psychiatric conduct. The student needs help, not praise.
— luigi Apr 22, 03:35 PM #
Bill (#5) is incorrect. The artist has the freedom to create. There is no correlative obligation for patrons to purchase or museums to display. There is a freedom to purchase or not purchase, to display or not display. That is the ambiguity that the artists lives under. They can create all they want, but nobody is obligated to buy it or look at it.
— Michael Apr 22, 04:12 PM #
Oops! There is one Shvarts, S. in herbs, in research that is. Hopefully, not in Yale. Is this Aliza in wonderland? “Curioser and curioser”? In these numerous entries, she certainly generated a lot of publicity for the herbs, that’s for sure.
— Michael Pyshnov Apr 22, 04:21 PM #
Reading many of these comments, I’m struck by and appalled at what we have become in our society, namely afraid to judge the actions of others. The fact remains that right and wrong do exist. The culture that refuses to accept this is a culture destined to fail.
— Sue Apr 23, 09:51 AM #
I don’t think this qualifies as academic dishonesty. If it is performance art, then she’s playing a role. Would you also accuse theater students of academic dishonesty because they take on another persona and speak things they don’t personally believe?
— Niel McDowell Apr 24, 12:39 PM #
Headline: Yale U. Says Student Must Acknowledge Her Artwork Is Creepy and that She is Wac.
Yes. That is what I want to see-some honest, un-spun comment on this crap.
— Alejandro Apr 25, 09:27 AM #
I feel it is so sad that we are even discussing lying and plagiarism as an issue when the whole issue here is life. Have we become so hardened to not see the value of life, this young lady seems to have whether pretend or real have very little concern for life, and the damage she possible has inflicted to herself exposes a very low self value. Just thinking up something like this is horrible, sad and tragic and yes I will use the word evil. Art was created by God and God values life. as someone who greatly appreciates all the areas of art I have to say on a lighter note, really now does anything and everything at all represent art. PS If I have been unfair to assume this young lady’s lack of concern for life, that she may actually be trying to stir the deadened senses of those who no longer recognize the value of life in an unborn than I am sorry. I should hope though that she would come to realize this lacked true discernment. Maybe it has got every one talking but if it was truly done as she said than to kill to teach people to not kill the unborn does not make sense and shows a lack of integrity. If it was a farse than again lack of integrity.. and Aaron (11 from another article) I can appreciate your opinion and can understand you may feel that way however pro-lifers that are true pro-lifers do not inflict the abortions of those they are showing. These are documented photos of abortions that have taken place. We as a society have become so hardened to the value of life with all that we watch and experience it is some pro-lifers objective to get people woke up to the truth. I, however will continue to pray for our nation.
— Tracy Apr 25, 12:08 PM #
If Aliza really wants to be controverial, and the deans at Yale are so openminded, why don’t they just let her alternate senior project be a cartoon of Muhammad? That’ll get a lot of debate going, amongst other things.
— Guanipa May 7, 05:10 PM #