An art performance consisting of a live child birth in a New York gallery is causing great controversy catching the attention of media and social media alike.

New York performance artist Mami Kotak, 36, - who has acknowledged her concern for her baby's health - plans to deliver her first child in a gallery in front of an audience in a couple of weeks.

"I hope that people will see 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," Kotak told the New York paper Village Voice.

Kotak said her first concern is the health of her child and stated that she has had prenatal care, taken birth-classes, and worked closely with a midwife to take "all necessary precautions."

She has called the performance "The Birth of Baby X.” It will take place at the Microscope Gallery in Brooklyn. She has converted the gallery into a birthing room with her grandmother's bed and her old rocking chair, stocked refrigerator, an inflatable birthing pool, among other things.

After her baby is born she plans to continue with "Raising Baby X", a long-term project that will ultimately encompass the overall span of the child's life from birth to college-age and the child’s development of an independent life.

Kotak has staged reenactments of her own birth, losing her virginity, her wedding, her grandfather's funeral, and told the New York Post "real life is the best performance art."