Nonconsensual Collaborations, 2012- 2014 (2016). 14:45min
Shoot, 2016. 11:20min
Hosted by Rogers Office
Nonconsensual Collaborations (2012-present) investigates the unmarked gendered dynamics of artistic collaboration, documenting a series of performances with other artists who did not agree to their participation. The video combines narration with clips and images from each of these encounters, which are degraded as a result of their exchange (via text message, email, etc.) between Shvarts and the other artist. The video documents the nonconsensual collaborations that took place between 2012-2014. As a performance work, this project is ongoing.
The second, Shoot , tells the story of how Shvarts wrote a performance proposal in 2012 to non-fatally and consensually shoot James Franco—an act for which there is an extensive art historical lineage. Years later, Franco visited the Whitney Museum, where Shvarts has a teaching fellowship, for a private tour. This 2 channel video juxtaposes text from the original proposal with now-canonical performance works that involve shooting, exploring the relationship between language, violence, and dramatic action.
Aliza Shvarts is an artist, writer, and scholar whose work deals broadly with queer and feminist understandings of reproductive labor and temporality. She received a BA from Yale University (2008), was a 2014-15 Helena Rubinstein Fellow in Critical Studies at the Whitney Independent Study Program, and is completing a PhD in Performance Studies at NYU. She has presented work and performed at Artspace, New Haven; Abrons Art Center, New York; Lévy Gorvy, New York; Matthew Gallery, New York; Slought Foundation, Philadelphia; the Tate Modern, London; Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin; and LOOP International Film Festival, Barcelona. Shvarts currently teaches at Parsons School of Design and is a Joan Tisch Teaching Fellow at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
alizashvarts.com