READER N. writes:

As bizarre as this story of a woman giving birth in an art gallery is, I prefer it to the “abortion as performance art” notion. Still, there are so many things wrong with this it is difficult to know where to start.

Excerpt:

“A pregnant Brooklyn performance artist is planning to have her baby in an art gallery in front of an audience as part of a piece examining childbirth.

Called “The Birth of Baby X,” the performance will feature artist Marni Kotak turning Bushwick’s Microscope Gallery into her “birthing room” where she will spend each day until the baby comes.

“I hope that people will see that human life itself is the most profound work of art, and that therefore giving birth, the greatest expression of life, is the highest form of art,” she said.”

Laura writes:

What Kotak really means is, birth is not profound.

The artist is profound. Novelty is profound. Sensation is profound. The audience is profound. The gallery is profound. The whole art world is profound. Everything is profound, but birth.

This is of a piece with pregnant women having themselves photographed naked or e-mailing fetal ultrasound images to relatives. It wears the appearance of honoring pregnancy and childbirth, but desecrates them. The pagan pregnancy is self-celebrating and extremely unimaginative. It kills the spirit of maternity, which is a feat of the imagination. If this child turns out to be a criminal or a jerk, Kotak’s artwork will take on different meaning. Perhaps the child will come back someday as an adult to this very gallery and make his own autobiographical statement. He could describe the effects of living with such a profound mother.

Jill Farris writes:

It would be interesting if she was jolted out of her smarmy, self-centered attitude by having a difficult birth! Considering that the female body very naturally craves quiet, dark places in which to have babies (I believe that statistically more babies are born in the wee hours of the night), I wouldn’t be surprised if her body “betrayed” her and tensed up by being on display at the gallery. This would lengthen the labor. Does she not realize how messy and humbling a labor and delivery can be? [Laura writes: No, she doesn’t. She is a performance artist and thus a newcomer to this planet.]

If she doesn’t immediately regret being on display when her baby is placed on her breast then she is a very unwomanly woman indeed. Hopefully she will have a moment of truth at the birth and realize that the baby needs protection and a quiet, secure place to be welcomed into the world.

One of the really ugly things about feminists who decide to get on the baby band wagon is that once they are no longer the center of attention with their pregnant bodies or their tiny newborn they have to settle into the hard slog of parenting…and it’s no longer about them. May God have mercy on these babies who are being born or adopted into the lives of very self-centered people.

Laura writes:

Yes, it can be a major let-down for the vanity mom to realize after the baby showers and the pictures and all the attention that it’s about another human being. Not that baby showers and excitement are bad at all. In fact, they are good. But combined with the excesses of today, they create unreal expectations.

Michael S. writes:

Did you poke around that woman’s website? I looked at her “found performances” (please) page. The best thing you can say about her is that she is stunningly self-absorbed. I seriously suspect that this woman is mentally unwell. If my wife started behaving this way, I would check her into a hospital (and probably call a priest).

Laura writes:

Todd Venezia of The New York Post is presumably not mentally unwell and he wrote about it. 

A reader writes:

Numerous videos are already online of women giving birth.

Linda N. writes:

Here in Chicago, a 27-year-old woman has made headlines for going into labor minutes after completing the Chicago Marathon. She was at 38 weeks. “I am crazy about running,” she said. It seems she’s very fond of making headlines, too. 

She claims spectators were cheering her on, but another article the day after the race said many people were horrified to see a heavily pregnant woman running a marathon, and race monitors along the course urged her to stop.

Laura writes:

Yes, I mentioned that the other day. I didn’t find it objectionable. Amber Miller was 39 weeks pregnant, an experienced runner who had run throughout her pregnancy and had the approval of her doctor. She also walked part of the way. I think if she had done a marathon any earlier in her pregnancy it would have been wrong. But she was due to deliver any day and her baby, who she did deliver a few hours later, was healthy.

You could argue that she set a bad precedent and made something that most women can’t do seem normal. I’m sympathetic to that point. But she loved to run and she was healthy.

On the other hand, possibly she could have endangered the baby despite what her doctor said.

N. writes:

A reader writes:

“Numerous videos are already online of women giving birth.”

But of course, those don’t count. Because they are not “Performance Art,” furthermore they weren’t created by Kotak. Never underestimate the sheer solipsism of an artist in the modern world.

Anonymous writes:

Both the birthing videos posted online and the extreme display of a live public birth show a disconnection to modesty and privacy, and as Jill Farris points out, the public birth may endanger the birth process.

In contrast:

“The protocols in the world of animal husbandry to protect an offspring at the time of birth-no strangers, dimmed lights, freedom of movement, familiar environment, unlimited nourishment, respectful quiet, no disruptions-are done without hesitation because to do otherwise invites “unexplained distress” or sudden demise of the offspring.”

– Beth Barbeau

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