Woman Behind Columbia ‘Mattress Performance’ Debuts New Exhibition
Image by Andrew Burton/Getty Images
Columbia University graduate Emma Sulkowicz has a new art show, according to The Cut.
Sulkowicz made national headlines in 2014 when they decided to carry their dorm mattress everywhere they went on Columbia’s campus until their alleged rapist was expelled. The art major called it “Mattress Performance (Carry That Weight)” and it quickly became the most famous senior thesis in recent history.
Nearly three years after that performance piece wrapped, Sulkowicz is debuting their first New York City gallery show at the Invisible Dog Art Center in Brooklyn.
The Cut describes the show, entitled “The Floating World”, as exploring “themes of trauma, healing, identity, and community, and features five floating silicone orbs, connected by ropes and filled with floating artifacts. Each orb is an homage to Sulkowicz’s relationship with a close friend or family member. The installation takes its name from the Japanese term Ukiyo, which describes the pleasure-seeking urban lifestyle of the Edo period in Japan.”
The exhibit will run until April 22.
Becky Scott is the editor of The Schmooze. Follow her on Twitter, @arr_scott
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
