Performance artist gives birth in NY gallery

There's something new to see at the Microscope Gallery in Brooklyn: a newborn baby called Ajax whose mother made her pregnancy the subject of her latest exhibition.

Performance artist Marni Kotak literally took up residence in the gallery last month, recreating a small apartment -- complete with birthing pool -- in anticipation of the arrival of her child, which came Tuesday.

"It’s a healthy baby boy!" said the gallery -- in the up-and-coming Bushwick district -- in a statement on Wednesday, adding that Ajax weighed in at a hefty nine pounds and two ounces (4.14 kilograms).

The gallery was closed on Wednesday, but it will reopen on Thursday and a video of Ajax's birth will be added to Kotak's blue-hued "durational performance" that runs through November 7.

Explaining her project earlier this month, Kotak told the Village Voice: "I will be focused on delivering my child into the world in the healthiest manner possible, rather than on how I look or what the audience may think."

An arts reporter for the weekly described Tuesday's post-natal scene in a blog: "Kotak calmly eating a banana, the placenta in a bowl, and the baby's father Jason holding his son, who was wrapped in a blue towel."

She added: "The beautiful baby boy was wide-eyed, and as quiet as could be, staring blankly into the camera and video lenses that hovered above him."

AFP