Aliza Shvarts and the Role of Transgressive Art
Posted by ben on 02 Jul 2008 at 10:59 pm | Tagged as: essays, performance art, politics, renegade performances, responses/reviews
My admittedly slow-on-the-draw take on the Aliza Shvarts controversy was just published in the Current:
Art can be viewed as a sort of safe space in which society allows itself to push moral boundaries with the understanding that the artist is asking a question. Behavior that would otherwise be proscribed is permitted in order to catalyze moral evolution. We can draw analogies here to other safe spaces that humans set up in order to take otherwise unacceptable risks: the boxing ring, the therapist’s office, even the dreamworld, where desires and fears are explored without physical commitment. Therapeutic uses of art are well established, as is the connection between dreams and artistic production.
Problems arise, however, when the boundary between art and life is blurred. When we move from image to enactment, a crucial line has been crossed, and the artistic space becomes not so safe. As much as morally questionable performances have been integrated into the artistic canon, it is possible that they will always provoke trepidation, if not outrage, in the general public.
Further reading:
- Shvarts’ article in the Yale Daily News
- Kriston Capps in the Guardian
C’mon, Ben. The blogosphere has already eaten, digested and shat out this sideshow attraction with an art degree. Jackass meets Artforum. Her importance as an artist was quicker than a newscycle, as it should be.
Ben makes good points in his article, whether or not you appreciate Shvarts’s work — and we had it in our hands for a little while before it was published, or it would’ve been in print sooner. Still, it raises timeless questions about art’s definition, role, and value.
but it’s no one’s responsibility but my own to ensure “we” survive.