Is birth ‘art’?

I’ve always believed that anything can be considered art, even if it’s as simple as a pencil stuck to the wall. Not everyone agrees, but art is such a broad spectrum that nobody can really take it too far… can they?

During my internet travels, I came across an article on Huffingtonpost.com which talks about a New York artist, Marni Kotak, who plans to publicly give birth as a work of art. She’s really going for it, I mean, she’s set up her own birthing pool, air matress, really got herself comfortable before revealing the spectacle of birth to her on lookers.

(photo from huffingtonpost.com)

Now, I thought that anything could be considered art. But after reading that, can it? Where do you draw the line? Personally, I think this is taking it a bit too far. I think that giving birth to your child should be a personal experience between you and your husband or wife. I’d hate the thought of anyone but my husband, midwife and mother actually being in the room when I have a baby! I’d really hate it! Especially if the other people watching were people that I weren’t familiar with. What’s more, she apparently said that ‘she expects she will shower behind a clear plastic curtain during her labor’, which I thought was a bit weird. Hey, why not just give these people everything if you’re gonna go squeezing a baby out in front of them!

But, maybe that’s just me being a bit ignorant. After reading this and Marni’s views on it, I’m torn as to whether I’m supposed to broaden my mind as to what art is, or whether I’m actually a bit weirded out by the whole idea and completely go against what she’s doing. It is however, quite facinating. If any of you who live over here in England have seen the programme on C4 ‘One Born Every Minute’, you might see where I’m coming from. As downright disgusting as birth looks, once you see how it happens and just what effect the outcome has on people, birth is really quite a beautiful thing. Maybe some people think that their experience should be shared with other people. It’s a bit weird that by the age of 16 that I’ve genuinely witnessed full blown birth on my TV, I know, but hey, what can you do?

However, I do still believe that allowing people you don’t know to witness you giving birth and calling it art is too much. I’ve been to the Tate Britain and seen a full sheep preserved and thought that THAT was taking it a bit far.

I’m interested to hear your views on this! Is it really art? Have a read of the article and leave your thoughts down below 🙂

L xoxo

@lozzer_