My post of yesterday, “Abortion as Art” started off with the caveat: This is not a joke, where Yale art student Aliza Shvarts impregnated herself and aborted fetuses for an art project.  Apparently, though, it was a joke.  Or at least a “creative fiction.”  The Yale Office of Public Affairs posts this announcement:

Ms. Shvarts is engaged in performance art.  Her art project includes visual representations, a press release and other narrative materials.  She stated to three senior Yale University officials today, including two deans, that she did not impregnate herself and that she did not induce any miscarriages.  The entire project is an art piece, a creative fiction designed to draw attention to the ambiguity surrounding form and function of a woman’s body.

She is an artist and has the right to express herself through performance art.

Had these acts been real, they would have violated basic ethical standards and raised serious mental and physical health concerns.

Thanks, Yale.  Does lying also violate basic ethical standards, too?  Oh, I don’t know.  The whole thing still testifies to the dereliction of universities and contemporary art into the realm of the absurd.