MEET EMMA SULKOWICZ. She is a visual arts major at Columbia University and is undertaking a thesis, which will see her carry a twin mattress around campus.
Why?
In protest at the fact that her university refuses to expel the person she says raped her.
Sulkowicz was raped in her dorm room two years ago, but a hearing conducted by campus officials found the man she accused not guilty and he has been allowed to remain in attendance at the university.
Sulkowicz outlined the experience in an article for Time earlier this year:
I think the school is pressured to find him not guilty because up until now Columbia could just push these things under the rug and no one would know. But that means the Columbia administration is harboring serial rapists on campus. They’re more concerned about their public image than keeping people safe.
The student has now channelled her trauma into a thesis project called Mattress Performance: Carrying That Weight, which has seen her vow to carry a mattress around college for as long as her alleged rapist remains at her school.
The piece could potentially take a day or it could go on until I graduate.
As well as carrying the mattress, Sulkowicz will also be setting up shop in a studio space where fellow students can engage with her on the piece. She explains that she chose the mattress because it represents an “intimate, private space” that was violated when she was raped.
I was raped in my own dorm bed, and since then that space has become fraught for me. And I feel like I’ve carried the weight of what happened there with me everywhere since then.
Sulkowicz is one of 23 students who has filed a federal complaint against Columbia University for their mishandling of sexual assault cases.
Columbia University has yet to respond to Sulkowicz’s project, but the consensus online is clear.
