Monday, October 10, 2011

Artist to give birth in gallery as part of performance piece

This may be one of the most amazing debuts the art world has ever seen. A pregnant Brooklyn performance artist is planing 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.

Kotak is due sometime in the next five weeks. Visitors to the Charles Place gallery -- where “The Birth of Baby X” starts today -- are warned that the baby may be born at any moment. “I have decided to do this because I want to show people that, as in my previous performances, real life is the best performance art,” she said.



Kotak said that she is mentally prepared to give birth with the art world looking on. “I wouldn’t say that I am scared to do this, because I have a good support team: my midwife, doula and wonderful husband,” she said. “Of course, I am a bit nervous about the whole process of giving birth and having a child, and like every mother, I am hoping that everything goes smoothly. But I am no more worried than I would be if I were having the baby at home or in a hospital.”

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope she delivers in the middle of the night.

WordyGrrl said...

I have to say I support her in this. There are far too many people (male and female) who say "Oh, women have babies all the time. It's easy!" And they've had no visual experience in how birth really happens.

Barwire said...

I was at the home birth of my middle daughter's second child. It was more painful for me to see her in pain than it was for me to give birth to her. And it was an easy birth. And I'm a woman.