Sunday, April 20, 2008

L'Affaire Shvarts III: Only a promise of unhappiness

On the question of whether this is good art: maybe it is and maybe it isn't, but there's a difference between art intended to shock the viewer in the hopes that they'll get over their shock for everyone's greater social good ("Yes, I'm a black man, and yes, I'm dressed as an astronaut—this disturbs you, doesn't it?") and art that takes the shock and discomfort of the viewer as its ultimate end. The Shvarts manifesto ("It is a myth that ovaries and a uterus are 'meant' to birth a child") suggests she meant to engage in the former. Oops.

No comments:

Post a Comment