THE GOOD GIRL

IS THIS ART or IS THIS GROSS???
A pregnant Brooklyn performance artist has arranged to give birth in a gallery space, while an audience watches. The artist, Marni Kotak, is spending every day over the next six weeks at the Microscope Gallery in Brooklyn until the big day. The gallery has been turned into a "birthing room" and she will be attended by her husband, a midwife and doula. Kotak has said that "The Birth of Baby X," will show that "giving birth, the greatest expression of life, is the highest form of art."

If it happens is a gallery is it art? The history of performance art is filled with over-sharing. Intimate body functions, blood, plenty of nudity, and sweat are central to this type of art. Kotak herself in her career has reenacted her own birth, the loss of her virginity, and the funeral of her grandfather.

She's getting a heck of a lot of press. My quick Google search turned up 1.2 million results. Damn, girl! And reactions are divided between those believing that she has the right to choose this event as an expression of her art and those that think it's just gross. Some even go so far as to suggest this is child abuse.

But is it art? Personally, I feel a bit mixed about it. I couldn't image giving birth in front of a crowd, but