PREGNANCY AS PERFORMANCE ART? Childbirth is a beautiful experience for most mothers. So beautiful, in fact, that some of them want to show it to the whole world, like actress Shwetha Menon

PREGNANCY AS PERFORMANCE ART?

Childbirth is a beautiful experience for most mothers. So beautiful, in fact, that some of them want to show it to the whole world, like actress Shwetha Menon

    You know how we complain about pesky baby pictures on our friends’ walls on Facebook because we don’t want to be subjected to every little detail about the tiny one and how he spends his day? Actor Shwetha Menon’s baby has stolen all those babies’ thunder in a big way, because her mommy gave birth to her on Thursday on camera, and that’s going to be part of a movie!
    Kalimannu, a Malayalam film, being directed by Blessy, is about the relationship of the baby with her mother, before and after birth, and during the delivery. Through her pregnancy, Shwetha acted in the film. Three cameras were positioned in her labour room, and kept rolling till 45 minutes after the baby was born and Shwetha kissed her on the forehead.
    If you’ve started cringing a little already, brace yourself, because we’ve just begun. Shwetha’s case isn’t the first instance of childbirth being presented as performance art, and because we’d like to educate you in ‘pregnancy performance art’, we’re going to tell you all about these camera-friendly mommies.
KOURTNEY KARDASHIAN (ON REALITY TV) There’s little we don’t know about the Kardashians’ lives and that’s because we’ve watched them do everything on camera. In fact, that’s how Kim got famous – by doing ‘everything’ on camera (yes, we are referring to her sex tape with Ray J). When the clan isn’t busy marrying and consummating on camera, they are giving birth on air. The cameras were rolling when Kourtney Kardashian welcomed her son, Mason, with partner Scott Disick in 2009 and three years later, when she chose to deliver her daughter Penelope via water birth. We were privy to details like how Kourt pulled out her own baby. With ample zooming in and what seems like like zero intervention by the show’s edit department, every microscopic detail of the pregnancy was on display. The video showed Kourtney’s legs in stirrups and the goocovered baby as it first emerged into the world. Even producer Ryan Seacrest was shocked and said, “I remember looking at the raw footage of Kourtney having Mason, the baby. I’d never seen a delivery in that much detail. Half of me was interested, but I was shocked that she essentially reached down and delivered her own baby. And I was like, ‘How much are we going to show of this?’ And I realised that they were more qualified women to make this decision. She would have loved for us to air the entire thing. But I remember thinking, ‘How far do we go?’” The answer is too far, Ryan, you went too far.
MARNI KOTAK (IN AN ART GALLERY) One person’s art can be another person’s ‘ewwww gross’. Marni Kotak gave birth to baby Ajax in the Microscopic art gallery in New York, in front of a live audience, as part of her performance art piece, The Birth Of Baby X. Just to reiterate, the artist squeezed out a nine pounds and two ounces infant in a birthing pool in front of ‘several’ onlookers. The err... set... which was a brightly coloured bedroom, was adorned with props like a 10-foot-tall trophy for Baby X “for being born,” Kotak’s pregnancy test, and photo collages of babies in the backdrop. Sure there were objections raised by people on how she was jeopardizing her and her baby’s health, but what’s all that compared to Kotak’s explanation on why she was doing this: “I am showing them that real life is the best performance art, and that, if our eyes can be opened to it, all of the meaning that we seek is right there in our everyday lives.” According to an international website, the ‘art’ doesn’t just end there. A video of the birth was added at the gallery, and formed the start of an 18-year-project called Raising Baby X, where Kotak will document her child’s upbringing until college with weekly video podcasts.
ALIZA SHVARTS (PLANNED TO SHOW ABORTION VIDEO) In 2008,Aliza Shvarts,a student of performance art at Yale University, gave a unique proposal for her senior project. She reportedly artificially inseminated herself for as many times as possible for nine months, and then induced abortions. The idea of the project was to feature video recordings of the forced miscarriages and preserved collections of the blood during the process. We’re not even kidding. According to Shvarts, the goal of the project was to “spark conversation and debate on the relationship between art and the human body.”
    After this story came out in the Yale Daily News, a student-run paper, Yale released a press release saying, “Ms Shvarts has stated that she did not impregnate herself and that she did not induce any miscarriages. The entire project is a creative fiction designed to draw attention to the ambiguity surrounding form and function of a woman’s body.” However, Shvarts maintained that she had conducted artificial inseminations as well as self-induced miscarriages.She said,“Using a needle-less syringe, I would inject the sperm near my cervix within 30 minutes of its collection, so as to ensure the possibility of fertilization. On the 28th day of my cycle, I would ingest an abortifacient, after which I would experience cramps and heavy bleeding. Because the miscarriages coincide with the expected date of menstruation, it remains ambiguous whether there was ever a fertilized ovum or not.” Shvarts ultimately submitted a different senior project and graduated from Yale. The university later admitted that they were unable to determine if her project was
    fictitious.

Aliza Shvarts

CHILLIN’ TIME: Abhay Deol was recently in the city to launch the ‘Essentially British’ brand Hackett, which has opened at DLF Emporio. We caught up with him as he was relaxing in his room wearing a Hackett shirt before the launch party

(From left to right) Kourtney giving birth on Keeping Up With The Kardashians; Marni Kotak, who gave birth in an art gallery; and actress Shwetha Menon with her husband and newborn daughter