I first learned about Conceptual Art from a wonderful lecture on genres of art. The concept idea of making Contraceptual Art immediately jumped into my head. After all, I am a population activist and my professional life has been devoted to helping people to have control over their fertility.
What is Conceptual Art? One definition is: “In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work.”
What is Contraceptual Art? that has yet to be decided!
Who knows what our lives would be like if we did not have the option of safe, effective means to limit our family size! Yet there are over 200 million women worldwide who lack access to modern contraception. Fewer people will help make the world more harmonious.
Our world is already overdeveloped and overpopulated. I fear for the world that our three granddaughters will know. Will we have left them with a world of war and disease? I am saddened that we are driving species to extinction at a rate that is perhaps 1,000 times the normal rate. Will there still be tigers in the wild when our granddaughters are grown?
Whether we like it or not, this country [US] still has Victorian ideals that eschew sexuality despite living in a world where sex is used to sell everything, including chewing gum and candy bars. My hope is that contraceptual art will bring birth control out of doctors’ offices and pharmacies and into people’s minds. And, oh yes, I hope that it will get a few laughs, too!
Following a long career as an obstetrician-gynecologist, Richard Grossman has kept busy writing the column “Population Matters!”. The Durango Herald publishes the column monthly, and it can also be found online at population-matters.org. Or, if you would like to subscribe to the column, you can contact him at: subscribe@population-matters.org. He promises only one email a month.
Recently Grossman has turned towards the use of art to raise further awareness that, indeed, population matters. For Grossman, Contraceptual Art provides a venue for bringing the challenge of human overpopulation to the forefront in an engaging and thought-provoking way.
The above post is through the MAHB’s Arts Community space –an open space for MAHB members to share, discuss, and connect with artwork processes and products pushing for change. Please visit the MAHB Arts Community to share and reflect on how art can promote critical changes in behavior and systems and contact Erika with any questions or suggestions you have regarding the space.
MAHB Blog: https://mahb.stanford.edu/creative-expressions/contraceptual-art/
The views and opinions expressed through the MAHB Website are those of the contributing authors and do not necessarily reflect an official position of the MAHB. The MAHB aims to share a range of perspectives and welcomes the discussions that they prompt.