{"id":66357,"date":"2025-10-20T12:09:04","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T16:09:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/krieger.jhu.edu\/humanities-institute\/event\/aliza-shvarts-dark-play\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T12:07:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T17:07:22","slug":"aliza-shvarts-dark-play","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/krieger.jhu.edu\/humanities-institute\/event\/aliza-shvarts-dark-play\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018DARK PLAY\u2019 by artist and theorist Aliza Shvarts"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"tribe-events-schedule tribe-clearfix\">\n<p class=\"tribe-events-schedule__datetime\">\n\t\t<span class=\"tribe-events-schedule__date tribe-events-schedule__date--start\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"tribe-events-schedule__separator tribe-events-schedule__separator--date\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t @ \t\t\t<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"tribe-events-schedule__time tribe-events-schedule__time--start\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Co-sponsored by History of Art<\/p>\n<p>Performance theorist Richard Schechner&nbsp;describes \u201cdark play\u201d as the condition&nbsp;when the performer knows they are performing, but the audience does not. The term also invokes the \u201cdark arts\u201d or clandestine powers attributed to witches as reproductive criminals: women who, as described by Marxist feminist Silvia Federici, not only often helped others manage their reproductive health, but whose speech\u2014insofar as they possessed the power to cast spells or curses\u2014possessed the power to act. In this artist talk, Aliza Shvarts will discuss the broader arc of her practice,&nbsp;and explore how &#8220;dark play&#8221; can offer an aesthetic and political strategy to navigate increasing forms of censorship.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Aliza Shvarts is an artist and theorist who takes a queer and feminist approach to reproductive labor and language. Her work first came to international attention in 2008 she was an undergraduate at Yale, and the university censored her\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Falizashvarts.com%2F2008_senior-thesis.html&amp;data=05%7C02%7Cvriossa1%40jhu.edu%7Cb9a3a1ca73c64a532ac108ddeb211b39%7C9fa4f438b1e6473b803f86f8aedf0dec%7C0%7C0%7C638925249599211468%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=S%2FAKXBkBs1b%2FiLcC6S2TPumRdHg1MiTaJWWo2l9wlCY%3D&amp;reserved=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">senior thesis<\/a>, which dealt with self-managed abortion. Shvarts&#8217; artwork has been exhibited internationally at venues including the Tate Modern, Athens Biennale, Art in General, and Sculpture Center. Her writing and interviews have appeared\u00a0in\u00a0<em>October<\/em>,\u00a0<em>Artforum<\/em>,\u00a0<em>The Cut<\/em>,\u00a0<em>e-flux<\/em>,\u00a0<em>Art in America<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>The Brooklyn Rail,\u00a0<\/em>among other publications.\u00a0Shvarts holds a PhD in Performance Studies (NYU)\u00a0and is currently Director of the Low-Residency MFA Program at School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC).<\/p>\n<div class=\"tribe-block tribe-block__venue tribe-clearfix tribe-block__venue--has-map\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tribe-block tribe-block__events-link\">\n<div class=\"tribe-events tribe-common\">\n<div class=\"tribe-events-c-subscribe-dropdown__container\">\n<div class=\"tribe-events-c-subscribe-dropdown\">\n<div class=\"tribe-common-c-btn-border tribe-events-c-subscribe-dropdown__button\">\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<button class=\"tribe-events-c-subscribe-dropdown__button-text\" aria-expanded=\"false\" aria-controls=\"tribe-events-subscribe-dropdown-content\" aria-label=\"View links to add events to your calendar\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAdd to calendar\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/button><\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"tribe-events-subscribe-dropdown-content\" class=\"tribe-events-c-subscribe-dropdown__content\">\n<ul class=\"tribe-events-c-subscribe-dropdown__list\">\n<li class=\"tribe-events-c-subscribe-dropdown__list-item tribe-events-c-subscribe-dropdown__list-item--gcal\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"\" class=\"tribe-events-c-subscribe-dropdown__list-item-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow noindex\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGoogle Calendar\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n<li class=\"tribe-events-c-subscribe-dropdown__list-item tribe-events-c-subscribe-dropdown__list-item--ical\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"\" class=\"tribe-events-c-subscribe-dropdown__list-item-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow noindex\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tiCalendar\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n<li class=\"tribe-events-c-subscribe-dropdown__list-item tribe-events-c-subscribe-dropdown__list-item--outlook-365\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"\" class=\"tribe-events-c-subscribe-dropdown__list-item-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow noindex\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOutlook 365\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n<li class=\"tribe-events-c-subscribe-dropdown__list-item tribe-events-c-subscribe-dropdown__list-item--outlook-live\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"\" class=\"tribe-events-c-subscribe-dropdown__list-item-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow noindex\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOutlook Live\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>@ Co-sponsored by History of Art Performance theorist Richard Schechner&nbsp;describes \u201cdark play\u201d as the condition&nbsp;when the performer knows they are performing, but the audience does not. The term also invokes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":433,"featured_media":66358,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","_tribe_events_is_hybrid":"","_tribe_events_is_virtual":"","_tribe_events_virtual_video_source":"","_tribe_events_virtual_embed_video":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button_text":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_at":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_to":[],"_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_event":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_views":"","_tribe_events_virtual_url":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[],"class_list":["post-66357","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2026-07-20 16:09:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"post_tag","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/krieger.jhu.edu\/humanities-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/66357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/krieger.jhu.edu\/humanities-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/krieger.jhu.edu\/humanities-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krieger.jhu.edu\/humanities-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/433"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/krieger.jhu.edu\/humanities-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/66357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66466,"href":"https:\/\/krieger.jhu.edu\/humanities-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/66357\/revisions\/66466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krieger.jhu.edu\/humanities-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/krieger.jhu.edu\/humanities-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krieger.jhu.edu\/humanities-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66357"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/krieger.jhu.edu\/humanities-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=66357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}