Below is the final draft of Project 2 that I submitted for grading.
Endurance Performance and Spatial Activism
ABSTRACT
Protest tactics have evolved greatly over the past century. Previously, protest was nearly always synonymous with violence, screaming, oppression, and destruction of property. When this strategy eventually lessened in its effectiveness, it gave way to peaceful protest and even silent demonstrations. Performers, writers, and artists became activists when they directed their crafts beyond aesthetic and began to express and represent their views on modern issues through their work. The 21st century has brought to light many social issues that were previously ignored and appear to be pervasive and even institutionalized. Thus, protest tactics have had to evolve once again to adapt to combat these new problems. This essay analyzes one of the most successful combinations of art and protest in recent history: Emma Sulkowicz’s “Mattress Performance” at Columbia University. Her project evolved from her interest in visual arts and featured techniques similar to endurance, performance artists. However, unlike typical performance art, the “Mattress Performance” dealt with issues of university administration’s handling of campus rape, an issue very personal to Sulkowicz. Furthermore, her use of performance space in her project was very similar to tactics used by Occupy protestors. This unique amalgamation of art and protest, combined with the very public nature of the performance, caused the media to pick up the story and turned Sulkowicz’s performance into the “Carry That Weight” protest and her mattress to become a recognizable symbol of frustration with university’s sexual assault policies. Although she never achieved her personal goal with the performance, its success as a protest, due to its unique tactics, serves as a notable model for protest for social change in the future.
INTRODUCTION
Sexual assault on college campuses has become an increasing concern in recent years. Young men and women across the United States have come forward in droves with their traumatic experiences and brought their universities’ government’s, and country’s attention to their plight. Currently numbers say that 1 in 5 students will be sexually assaulted in college and experts estimate that 95% of campus rapes go unreported (United States). Although their tales greatly differ, one common aspect among many victims’ stories, spanning numerous universities, is students’ dissatisfaction with their administrations’ handling of their sexual assault cases. Sexual assault is always a difficult crime to prosecute but it is especially so on college campuses because the implications for the future prospects of the perpetrator, if found guilty, are significant. Furthermore, over 80% of campus rapes are committed by people known by the victim and over 75% of those incidents are committed by an intimate partner (United States). Thus students are often reluctant to go through the police and justice system for fear of entirely destroying their assaulter’s prospects. Instead victims elect to pursue their university’s judicial process and often emerge frustrated and even traumatized. Students’ complaints about their experiences include unfair judicial processes, untrained and unsympathetic interviewers, inconsistent record keeping and representation, and concern for the institution’s reputation above getting justice for victims. While these plights have recently been brought to popular attention, administrations are only now making efforts to remedy these egregious instances and, in the meantime, students are still frustrated with their treatment. There are numerous organizations calling for effective reform across the country but one of the most successful and also poignant protests was begun by one woman: Emma Sulkowicz, a visual arts student from Columbia University. Sulkowicz very astutely combined two of the most effective, modern forms of protest- performance art and occupy strategies- to not only forcefully make her point at Columbia and across the nation but also to allow herself to heal and reflect by metaphorically encapsulating the aftermath of her own sexual assault in the weight of a fifty-pound mattress.
Question:
The most notable effect of Sulkowicz’s mattress performance is the amount of national attention it, and consequently her story, received. What was previously the “Mattress Performance” became a symbol for the “Carry That Weight” movement and protest across campuses in the United States. A simple mattress became a metaphor for the burden sexual victims carry with them as a result of their traumatic experiences and seemed to hit home for American citizens in a way that other protests about campus sexual assault did not. This begs the question: how did Emma Sulkowicz’s “Mattress Performance” combine elements of localist protest and endurance performance art? Why was this unique amalgamation so effective in enacting change? By understanding why “Carry That Weight” was so effective, other students and activists can adopt similar strategies in order to affect further change in their university’s sexual assault policies and hopefully solve the issue campus rape for good.
Background to the “Mattress Performance”:
Emma Sulkowicz was raped by an acquaintance in her own room on the first night of her sophomore year in 2012. After the incident she was too traumatized and overwhelmed to come forward and accuse her assaulter for months but when she met two other women who experienced abuse at his hands, she spoke out. Sulkowicz went through both Columbia’s judicial process and filed a complaint with the New York Police Department but was left dissatisfied by both parties. The Columbia administration, in particular, seemed to have a very unequitable process. The New York Times reported that “Columbia students say administrators tell those who file assault claims that they must not discuss their cases outsides the confines of the campus disciplinary process, though similar practices at other schools have fun afoul of federal regulators, and victim advocates call them blatantly illegal” (“It’s Hard to Ignore”). Sulkowicz’s account of her interactions with university officials brought to light several troubling aspects of their sexual assault protocol (Sulkowicz). Eventually Columbia University cleared the accused, Paul Nussenger, of all charges and denied Sulkowicz’s appeal of the ruling.
As is the case with many sexual assault victims, Sulkowicz dwelled on her assault and struggled to find closure long after Columbia’s ruling on the case. The summer before her senior year she attended a residency at the Yale Summer School of Art and Music and while there her concept of the “Mattress Performance” began to take shape (Smith). Sulkowicz decided that for her senior thesis she would create a piece exemplifying endurance art and to be performed in front of the entire population of Columbia involving a standard issue, twin XL mattress, identical to the one she was raped on. She decided to carry mattress with her everywhere she went on Columbia’s campus until either Nussenger was expelled or the day they both graduated. She painted the walls of her studio with her “rules of engagement” for the project and began it on the first day of her senior year (Smith). Her performance was praised by prominent art critics for “combining aspects of endurance, body and protest art and participatory relational aesthetic [and being] carefully conceived and carried out by one person expending considerable thought, time and energy for a very long time” (Smith).
METHODS
Procedure:
The Occupy Movement is an uprising of the “99%” of common Americans against the 1 percent who hold the majority of the wealth in the country. Beginning with Occupy Wall Street, the movement implements an occupation strategy so that the group’s frustrations and calls for change cannot be ignored (Davis). Essentially, large groups of people flock to urban centers, such as famous landmarks, business districts, notable corporations in the area, or the center of the city and “occupy” the space while peacefully protesting the inequitable distribution of wealth and the social inequalities caused by this. Angela Davis writes that the demonstrations have drawn crowds that are “multi-racial, multi-generational, multi-gender, multi- everything” and they have gathered a lot of media attention. While Occupy may seem to be more of a traditional protest with bringing the issue very publicly to the streets, Davis emphasizes that there is also an artistic component with each region having its own individual signs and rallying symbols.
The Occupy Movements are also a prime example of localist protest. Rather than Occupy groups taking all of their members to Capitol Hill, they remain in their own cities, where the inequality is felt personally for every member of the protest. Occupy’s strategy has been to take over the exact same space where they want to see the change they are advocating for. This is effective because it ensures that the people they need to reach cannot ignore them and, furthermore, motivates other locals that are not yet part of the protest to join because it is in their backyard and they directly relate to the structural inequalities that local Occupy protests are fighting to alleviate.
In “On Occupy”, James Lawson clearly states a formula, derived from historical instances, of how to overthrow and authoritarian government. He lists three components: “an escalation of unity of purpose,” “a plan,” and “an emergence of nonviolent discipline” (Davis). He then connects all of these features to occurrences in the Occupy Movement’s progression. For example, the Boston Occupy group’s broadening of their efforts when Lawson, in a speech, compelled them to realize that their audience is not just corporate America but rather the entire citizenry (Davis). These three qualities become very important later in this essay when I attempt to prove that not only is Emma Sulkowicz’s use of space in the “Mattress Performance similar to Occupy’s, but also that her creative process and execution mirrors Occupy’s progression. The success of Occupy and other protests that used these localist features stands as a testament to the power of localist protest.
Angela Davis also describes the impact of art and how it can supplement and even function as protest. The Occupy Movement used art locally, with each occupy site coming up with its own rallying statements and representative posters and images (Davis). In “On Occupy”, Davis praises the individualism in the art, saying, “Art drives movements for radical social change. Art helps us to find our way into new dimensions. Art helps up to give expression to what might be considered impossible in the world that it is.” She attributes the successful connections between the various occupy movements to the unifying themes in their art and their message. Thus art can be a type of protest and, furthermore, enhance and spread local protest movements.
Performance art is a piece of fine art that derives its significance from being performed by the artist to its audience. In the context of this paper, I am focusing specifically on exhibitions that derive importance from the space in which they are performed. Marina Abramovic is widely considered the mother of modern performance art and an article by Soraya McDonald in the Washington Post focuses on her most recent piece, “512 Hours”. “512 Hours” was an installation at the Serpentine Museum in London in which Abramovic would sit at one end of a long table, silent, for eight hours a day and invite viewers to sit at the other end until they had their fill (“Even When She’s Doing ‘Nothing’”). While this piece may seem quite simply, visually, Abramovic believed that “many things will happen in that space. It will be very physical and performative” (“Even When She’s Doing ‘Nothing’”). Relating performance art to space, performance artists are usually given a room, like Abramovic was, to make of what they will. The performance space is confined to the room and some artists even take steps to ensure that only direct viewers get to experience it; for example, Abramovic banned any photography or cellphones in the room where she performed “512 Hours” so as to preserve the sanctity of the performance space. Overall, performance art’s key trademark is manipulating a space for the performance and having the performance itself be the aspect that conveys the point the artist intended to make. Just like in traditional performance art exhibitions, Sulkowicz’s piece has to take place in a local space to convey her intended message.
Endurance Art is a specific type of performance art that involves some sort of hardship, such as pain, solitude, or exhaustion. By specifying performance art into endurance art, the piece becomes significantly more compelling because it is human nature to feel sympathy for the artist or at least take note of the spectacle. The article “Endurance Art” details a traveling installation of endurance art, featuring over three dozen artists and their varying performances, and has images and testimony from the artists themselves. The pieces in this exhibition display all of the aforementioned examples of hardship among others. For example, one man hung suspended from a tree by hooks in his skin for a few hours every day (“Endurance Art”). Another man spent a year in solitary confinement with no human contact or entertainment otherwise and in a third piece a man and woman stayed attached to each other by a three-foot-long rope for 23 hours a day for three days (“Endurance Art”). The majority of these images were accompanied by quotes from the performers themselves which revealed the metaphorical symbolism encompassed in their physical hardship and how their individual exhibitions represented bigger issues. One man tied fifty-one large sticks to his back and ran naked throughout the streets until he eventually collapsed from exhaustion. The artist is Puerto Rican and he chose fifty-one sticks to represent Puerto Rico as a potential fifty-first state in America. His struggle with, and eventual collapse due to, the sticks was representative of the struggle and eventual moral defeat of Puerto Rican immigrants to America, just like he experienced (“Endurance Art”. Overall, endurance art involves a physical hardship of some sort that is used to bring attention to, through metaphor, a larger and more significant point.
Materials:
Because the “Mattress Performace” caused such a large media frenzy, there is a wealth of information to build an archive from. Nearly every relevant and prominent newspaper, magazine, and journal had written some article about Sulkowicz and her piece so I selected articles that covered a breadth of topics and perspectives about “Carry That Weight”. Generally, these sources provided descriptions of and information about her project. Furthermore, Sulkowicz also gave a lot of interviews and wrote her own editorials and these sources provide firsthand insight. Her faculty mentor, other prominent endurance performance artists, and student activists that participated in days of action inspired by “Carry That Weight” were also interviewed in relation to Sulkowicz’s piece so I have included quotes from them as well. This compilation of sources makes for a diverse and complete archive.
RESULTS
“Carry That Weight” undoubtedly uses endurance performance art as a medium to convey Emma Sulkowicz’s dissatisfaction with the Columbia administration’s handling of her rape case. Art critic Roberta Smith describes her project as such: “The work Ms. Sulkowicz is making is strict and lean, yet inclusive and open ended, symbolically laden yet drastically physical. All of this determines its striking quality as art, which in turn contributes substantially to its effectiveness as protest.” The weight of the mattress is like the constant burden she carries as a survivor of sexual assault and this immense load is obviously a physical burden. In an interview with “Democracy Now”, Sulkowicz added further metaphorical significance to her piece that may have been less obvious, saying, “In my case, I was raped in my own bed. Of course, rape can happen anywhere, but for me, it sort of desecrated one of the most intimate and private places of my life and the way that I’ve brought my story from a place that I keep secret out into the public eye sort of mirrors carrying the mattress out into the light for everyone” (“It’s Hard to Ignore”). Sulkowicz’s immensely physical performance clearly carries deep metaphorical meaning and she demonstrated her intent and awareness of her medium throughout her performance. It is obvious from her interviews that Emma Sulkowicz is well-read about her subject. She often used verbiage consistent with her contemporaries in endurance performance art when describing her performance and its impact. In December 2014 she described the progression of her project: “The performance space is beyond the mattress […] the mattress as a space moves beyond the physical” (Brooklyn Museum). Overall, “Carry That Weight” is a quintessential example of endurance performance art.
Sulkowicz also uses local space to create meaning in her “Mattress Performance”. In the same way that Occupy was successful because of its deliberate choices of protest sites, Sulkowicz’s performance was effective because her message was directly relevant to the location. When asked why she only carried the mattress on Columbia University property and not all the time she responded: “[the “Mattress Performance”] is very site specific. If I carried it around New York City, it would turn into a piece about homeless and while I’m glad it may have that affect that isn’t necessarily what I want” (Brooklyn Museum). Thus, “Carry That Weight” gains significance from where it is performed. In contrast to traditional exhibitions of performance art, Sulkowicz not only brought her protest to the streets but also allowed others to become tangibly involved by permitting them to help carry her burden if they asked to. She considered them to be “entering her performance space” and also began write about her varying experiences with others in her “Mattress Diary” (Smith). In the same way, the Occupy movement also encouraged others to get involved by alerting them to a shared plight that they are sympathetic to- just like a petite young woman struggling with a heavy mattress. Not only did Sulkowicz use space similarly to the Occupy movement, but her project also fit other criteria of localist protest.
According to Lawson’s definition of a successful localist protest, the “Mattress Performance” is a prime example and fits all three characteristics. The first aspect was an “escalation of unity of purpose” (Davis). What started as an individual performance by Sulkowicz quickly spread around her campus and eventually the nation, with everyone who picked up the mattress as a symbol calling for the same change. Furthermore, Sulkowicz personally escalated her commitment to the project and evolved with it in numerous ways such as adapting to changing environmental conditions, adding components to the project, and realizing that “the performance is giving her new muscles and an inner strength she didn’t know she had” (Smith). The second characteristic was having a plan. Sulkowicz meticulously crafted her “Rules of Engagement”, got the project approved by a faculty advisor, and it served as her senior visual arts thesis (Steinhauer). The final feature in Lawson’s list was nonviolent protest. Sulkowicz somewhat adapted the idea of nonviolent protest and applied it to her performance by making it a non-confrontational expression. Because “Carry That Weight” conveyed its message through art and not overt public demonstration, it was already nonviolent but Sulkowicz took this one step further by never “performing” directly to make a stand in front of the people she felt did her wrong- her rapist and Columbia administrators. Rather she carried out her protest despite them and the “Mattress Performance” made its significant impact regardless of their presence and involvement.
Although the media covered the “Mattress Performance” primarily due to it functioning as a protest, Sulkowicz’s personal relationship with the piece was focused on using the progression of the art as a creative and generative expression. She constantly revised her rules of engagement, added components to the piece to make it more well-rounded, such as a diary, and combatted new struggles daily (Brooklyn Museum). She has maintained that, despite the numerous metaphorical connections and frenzy the media put forth, “the piece was about an honest struggle with the mattress” (Brooklyn Museum). While she was symbolically protesting her university’s sexual assault protocol, she urged in interviews that people not forget the visual arts component: “I think ‘protest’ sort of ignores the real endurance and performance aspect of it, and how I really have to start constructing my day and every thought around, ‘what does it mean in terms of this art piece?’ That’s very different from protest” (Brooklyn Museum).
However, even though Sulkowicz emphasizes the artistic techniques in her mattress performance, her project departs from non-protest performance art due to a difference in motive. While Sulkowicz’s performance was still going on, Marina Abramovic, the most celebrated artist in endurance performance art, was asked for her thoughts on the piece. She shared her admiration of Sulkowicz with New York Magazine: “Many people don’t have the willpower to stick to something no matter what, and that’s what she’s doing” (“It’s Hard to Ignore”). However, she was more focused on Sulkowicz’s next step: “An artist doesn’t make a name with one piece, they have to make a body of work” (“It’s Hard to Ignore”). Abramovic’s statement highlights the differences between the motivations of traditional endurance performance artists and Emma Sulkowicz. Although Sulkowicz has released a few other pieces across different mediums concerned with rape and sex, she has not continued the “Mattress Performance” or any pieces like it since she graduated from Columbia. While professional performance artists are concerned with continuing their concentrations and advancing their artistic perspective, Sulkowicz’s “Carry That Weight” project was a singular piece to her. Her faculty advisor for her thesis, Professor Jon Kessler noted this difference in motive: “More than any of those people, Emma’s work comes from something which is so much more personal and so much deeper […] really about working something out cathartically and also making an enormous statement for change (Steinhauer). I argue that this sentiment is more similar to that of Occupy protestors detailed above than prominent performance artists. Furthermore, Kessler also mentioned that when Sulkowicz came to him with her proposal she wasn’t even aware of the work of Abramovic and performance artists like her so the initial idea for the “Mattress Performance” came entirely from Sulkowicz (Steinhauer). This stark difference in motive leads me to believe that the true significance of the “Mattress Performance” is more due to its localist aspects than the artistic medium it uses to convey the intended message.
The adoption of the mattress as a symbol for national protest is a testament to Sulkowicz’s successful combination of art and localist protest. Because the “Mattress Performance” garnered so much media attention almost immediately after Sulkowicz began the piece in her senior year at Columbia, the metaphorical symbolism of the mattress spread like wildfire across the nation. Within two weeks, one hundred students staged a rally at Columbia University, holding signs with red tapes over their mouths and toting a dozen mattresses (Steinhauer). Three of the mattresses had “Carry That Weight” written on them in red tape, connecting their demonstration to Sulkowicz’s protest of how university administrators handled her rape case (Steinhauer). On October 29th of that same year there was a “Carry That Weight” National Day of Action nationwide. A Washington Post article interviewed Faith Ferber, a student at American University and organizer of her school’s day of action. Ferber herself was already an activist in her own right but Sulkowicz’s story struck a chord with her and she was motivated to participate, saying, “we have to hope that [this protest is] going to light a fire under their butts, because…negative media attention is sometimes the only thing that will push a university to start acting” (Kaplan). Beyond this day of action, the mattress cropped up in numerous protests against universities’ handling of sexual assault throughout the rest of the year. The “Mattress Performance” culminated in a public demonstration at Columbia University’s 2015 Commencement. Even though Columbia instituted a sexual respect education requirement that February, Emma Sulkowicz’s piece was still unsatisfied because her rapist was still on campus (Taylor). As promised, she walked across the graduation stage to receive her diploma toting her mattress with the help of four friends (Taylor). Many students in the crowd had a strip of red tape on their light blue graduation caps to signify that they stood in solidarity with Emma and her protest (Taylor). This finale to her performance transpired right in front of her rapist, Paul Nussenger, and the Columbia administration that misrepresented her story.
DISCUSSION
Answer to Question:
The “Mattress Performance” was undoubtedly a revolutionary piece of art and also protest. Although it divided many art critics, activists, and citizens, the exhibition was extremely effective in sparking a conversation. It brought significant attention to a pervasive issue that the United States was only beginning to realize at the time and the country has since then taken great strides to end instances of sexual assault and rape on college campuses. Emma Sulkowicz’s unique combination of techniques from endurance performance art and spatial activism from the Occupy Movement allowed her “Mattress Performance” to directly effect those around her as well as spark the “Carry That Weight” protest, which reached a wide audience, and turned a simple dorm room mattress into a rallying point against campus sexual assault. The metaphorical relationship between her performance space and sexual assault is very similar to themes in other endurance performance art but her piece’s entrance into and manipulation of public space is comparable to strategies of the Occupy Movement. This combination of techniques was effective in first gaining attention because of the artistic aspect and then began to affect change due to her commitment to the project and overtness of the issue.
So What?
Emma Sulkowicz’s “Mattress Performance” astutely combined the best of both tactics and made her protest both sophisticated and widely recognizable. By making a standard mattress a powerful symbol for the “Carry That Weight” movement, Sulkowicz ensured that her message could spread and endure. Her process and project have two critical nuggets of significance for future activists. For one, specifically to those advocating to improve campus sexual assault policy, they now have a story and rallying point to carry through their entire movement until they achieve their goals. The mattress has already been the figurehead at multiple protests on college campuses, nationwide, and the object has not lost its significance. Secondly, for modern activists in general, after analyzing Sulkowicz’s work in general they now have a blueprint for impactful and poignant protest. Her process and and methods were undoubtedly successful at communicating her point, emphasizing the necessity for change, and reaching an immense audience and, similar to Martin Luther King Jr. emulating Gandhi with peaceful protest, other social activists could benefit by learning from her example. I am not suggesting that this is a guaranteed strategy for success, or that it would be easy to replicate Sulkowicz’s highly involved and organic process, but rather that her unique take on protest adds to the conversation of successful strategies. As a visual arts student and sexual assault survivor, the “Mattress Performance” was an only logical amalgamation of Sulkowicz’s aptitudes and influences. Thus she had commitment to the process and appropriate knowledge and verbiage to convey her message. If another protest movement had a leader with similar background and dedication, I think it would be advisable for them to consider Emma Sulkowicz a key influence while crafting their demonstration
Works Cited
Brooklyn Museum. “Carry That Weight.” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 17 Dec. 2014. Web. 1 February 2016.
Davis, Angela et al.. “On Occupy”. Race, Poverty & the Environment 18.2 (2011): 76–83. Web.
“Endurance Art”. “Endurance Art”. Performing Arts Journal 18.3 (1996): 66–70. Web.
Kaplan, Sarah. “How a Mattress Became a Symbol for Student Activists Against Sexual Assault.” Washington Post. The Washington Post, 28 Nov. 2014. Web. 01 Feb. 2016.
McDonald, Soraya Nadia. “Even When She’s Doing ‘Nothing,’ Marina Abramović Gets People Talking.” Washington Post. The Washington Post, 10 June 2014. Web. 1 Feb. 2016.
McDonald, Soraya Nadia. “It’s Hard to Ignore a Woman Toting a Mattress Everywhere She Goes, Which Is Why Emma Sulkowicz Is Still Doing It.” Washington Post. The Washington Post, 29 Oct. 2014. Web. 01 Feb. 2016.
Smith, Roberta. “In a Mattress, a Lever for Art and Political Protest.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 21 Sept. 2014. Web. 01 Feb. 2016.
Steinhauer, Jillian. “Two Weeks Into Performance, Columbia Student Discusses the Weight of Her Mattress.” Hyperallergic RSS. N.p., 17 Sept. 2014. Web. 1 Feb. 2016.
Sulkowicz, Emma. “‘My Rapist Is Still on Campus'” Time. Time, 15 May 2014. Web. 13 Feb. 2016.
Taylor, Kate. “Mattress Protest at Columbia University Continues Into Graduation Event.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 19 May 2015. Web. 1 Feb. 2016.
United States. National Institute of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. Sexual Assault on Campus: What Colleges and Universities Are Doing About It. By Heather M. Karjane, Bonnie S. Fisher, and Francis T. Cullen. Washington D.C.: Research for Practice, Dec. 05. Print.