A pregnant American performance artist, Marni Kotak, will give birth to her first baby at an art gallery in New York, if all goes according to plan, in five weeks' time. It brings new meaning to embarrassing baby photos as the public will be free to watch the child emerge.
Starting on Saturday, Kotak will spend the next five weeks at the Microscope gallery in New York, until her baby is born. Her performance is called “The Birth of Baby X” and visitors to the gallery can watch her give birth live. She will then turn the act of bringing the child up into an art form, by calling it 'Raising Baby X'.
Kotak has explained her work to the New York Post by saying that “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”.
She has already staged re-enactments seminal moments in her life including her own birth and losing her virginity, and attending her grandfather’s funeral. How grateful her child will be for the publicity remains to be seen.