Art Creation and Human Reproduction

Barbara Tryka

doi:10.18290/rkult21121-8

Barbara Tryka https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1482-4716

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/rkult21121-8

Keywords: authenticity, donor conception, reification, limits of artistic expression, offence

Abstract

The article is about performance IMMACULATE (2020) by Casey Jenkins focused on problems of queer reproduction. The artist intended to live stream an act of self-insemination every month during ovulation until conception. The author provides critical analysis and interpretation of the performance in the context of pretence and authenticity of the artist’s actions. Flowingly, the author discusses deliberate blurring of boundaries between artist’s life and art, between human reproduction and artistic creation, and explains the relationship between process of creation and its artwork. Finally, the author discusses possible objections to IMMACULATE including issue that a child may be conceived as an artwork. The core of this controversy starts from welding of art creation and procreation. However, resigning from real insemination does not have to undermine the authenticity of art performance or it can make it even more authentic. The author emphasizes the moral aspect of artistic decision-making either in the context of authenticity of art creation or the relational dimension of art where any artistic action taken towards other humans is significant.

References

Buttiglione, Rocco. 1994. “Kilka uwag o sposobie czytania Osoby i czynu.” Translated by Tadeusz Styczeń. In Karol Wojtyła. Osoba i czyn oraz inne studia antropologiczne, edited by Tadeusz Styczeń, Wojciech Chudy, Jerzy W. Gałkowski, Adam Rodziński, and Andrzej Szostek, 9–42. 3rd edition. Lublin: TN KUL.

Caroll, Noël. 2000, “Art and Ethical Criticism: An Overview of Recent Directions of Research.” Ethics 110, no. 2: 350–387.

Danto, Arthur Coleman. 1964. “The Artworld.” The Journal of Philosophy 61, no. 19: 571–584.

Diver, Alice. 2014. A Law of Blood-ties—The ‘Right’ to Access Genetic Ancestry. London: Springer.

Dworkin, Ronald. 1993. Life’s Dominion. New York: Knopf.

Eberl, Jason T. 2008. “The Moral Status of ‘Unborn Children’ Without Rights.” The American Journal of Bioethics 8, no. 7, p. 44–46. DOI: 10.1080/15265160802248245.

Fischer-Lichte, Erika. 2008. The Transformative Power of Performance: A New Aesthetics. Translated by Saskya Iris Jain. New York: Routledge.

Gardiner, Michael. 1996. “Foucault, Ethics and Dialogue.” History of Human Science 9, no. 3: 27–46.

Grotowski, Jerzy. 1999. Teksty z lat 1965-1969, edited by Janusz Degler. Wrocław: Drukarnia Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego.

Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Judgment. Translated by Werner S. Pluhar. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company, 1987.

Kawalec, Anna. 2013a. “Autentyczność i udawanie twórcy.” In Między autentycznością a udawaniem. Postawy twórcze w kulturze współczesnej, edited by Anna Kawalec and Wojciech Daszkiewicz, 13–19. Lublin: Wydawnictwo KUL, 2013.

Kawalec, Anna. 2013b. “Estetyka teatru?” In Między autentycznością a udawaniem. Postawy twórcze w kulturze współczesnej, edited by Anna Kawalec and Wojciech Daszkiewicz, 101–112. Lublin: Wydawnictwo KUL.

Kawalec, Anna. 2020. “Stand-up comedy as a hallmark of western culture.” Jurnal of Aesthetics & Culture” 12, No. 1. Accessed 02.11.2020. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20004214.2020.1788753.

Marcel, Gabriel. 1951. Homo Viator. Introduction to Metaphysic of Hope. Translated by Emma Craufurd. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company.

Maritain, Jacques. 1960. “The Responsibility of the Artist.” Maritain. Notre Dame University. Accessed 02.11.2020. https://maritain.nd.edu/jmc/etext/resart.htm.

Meerum Terwogt, Mark, C.J. Meerum-Terwogt-Reijnders, Hekken van S.M.J. 2002. “Identity problems related to an absent genetic father.” Zeitschrift für Familienforschung 14, no. 3: 257-271.

Nussbaum, Marta C. 2004. Hiding from Humanity. Disgust, Shame and the Law, Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Robertson, John A. 1994. Children of Choice, Princeton: Princeton University Press 1994.

Schechner, Richard. 1985. Between Theatre and Anthropology, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 1985.

Taylor, Charles. 1991. The Ethics of Authenticity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Turner, Victor. 1982. From Ritual to Theatre. The Human Seriousness of Play, Baltimore, MD: The John Hopkins University Press.

Wojtyła, Karol. 1994. Osoba i czyn oraz inne studia antropologiczne, edited by Tadeusz Styczeń, Wojciech Chudy, Jerzy W. Gałkowski, Adam Rodziński, and Andrzej Szostek. 3rd ed. Lublin: TN KUL.

Zadeh, Sophie, E.C. Ilioi, Vasanti Jadva, and Susan Golombok. 2018. “The perspectives of adolescents conceived using surrogacy, egg or sperm donation.” Human Reproduction 2018 33, no. 6: 1099–1106.