Snappy newsletters. Simple Facebook sharing. Spirited comments. Sweet features are waiting… GET THEM NOW!

Performance Artist to Give Birth Live

She calls it 'The Birth of Baby X'

By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff

Posted Oct 8, 2011 2:30 PM CDT

(Newser) – Audience members may want to bring smelling salts and a few handkerchiefs for this one. A Brooklyn performance artist says she will give birth before a live audience at her new installation, "The Birth of Baby X," the New York Post reports. “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,” says performance artist Marni Kotak.

Kotak has already opened her "birthing room" at a Brooklyn gallery, and says she's ready with her "midwife, doula and wonderful husband" to give birth sometime over the next 5 weeks. Meanwhile visitors can stroll in and watch videos of audience members' faces projected onto her belly. Next up for Kotak? “Raising Baby X,” in which she will "re-contextualize the everyday act of raising a child into a work of performance art,” the gallery says.

Performance artist Marni Kotak plans to give birth before a live audience in Brooklyn sometime over the next 5 weeks.
Performance artist Marni Kotak plans to give birth before a live audience in Brooklyn sometime over the next 5 weeks.   (Shutterstock)
I am no more worried than I would be if I were having the baby at home or in a hospital, says performance artist Marni Kotak.
"I am no more worried than I would be if I were having the baby at home or in a hospital," says performance artist Marni Kotak.   (Shuttestock)
« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow
3%
Hilarious
12%
Intriguing
6%
Depressing
3%
Brilliant
13%
Scary
63%
Annoying
To report an error on this story, notify our editors.
COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 51 comments
lynnesy
Jan 31, 2013 8:43 PM CST
The poor kid. As wonderful and beautiful as one's birth may be to the mother, father, and family or friends maybe,  ....... to strangers it is rather mundane if it weren't for the voyuerism factor and the atmosphere of a spectacle. What an ego to use your own child's life for some kind of shock value....pretty self-centered if you ask me.
crafter67
Oct 9, 2011 1:05 PM CDT
I hope they have an ambulance on standby or her piece of performance art has a chance of turning out to be a tragedy on state...on the other hand maybe the kind of people who looks for those possibilities will want tickets...
JoeQ
Oct 9, 2011 10:22 AM CDT
She could always do a "Jackson Pollock" canvas while she's at it.
 

NEWS FROM OUR PARTNERS
Other Sites We Like:   24/7 Wall St.   |   BuzzFeed   |   Cracked   |   Timelines   |   POPSUGAR Tech   |   Business Insider   |   HuffPost Entertainment   |   NewsOne