It was going to be like 1968, all over again.
‘It is so simple: A woman with a mattress, refusing to keep her violation private, carrying with her a stark reminder of where it took place. 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.’
It’s good to know her parents stood by her (something here is…wrong), if only for a while.
Add your own:
-Disturbing levels of narcissicism and a questionable relationship with the truth-√
-Making a sad spectacle of yourself and a mockery of normal, healthy relationships-√
-Making life potentially more difficult for actual rape victims-√
-Making life potentially more difficult for those unjustly accused of rape, likely including the accused-√
-Making the graduation of many other students about you-√
-Likely creating more incentives for legal and moral intrusion into all of our personal lives by eroding the distance between private/public-√
-Undermining even the credibility of other purveyors of bad art, emotion and ideology by likely lying about what happened-√
-Likely creating less respect for art in general-√
-Likely creating less respect for other postmodern performance artists, who are just trying to make a buck with their unmade beds–√
Thanks for the memories, Mattress Girl:
‘I do think that nowadays, art pieces can include whatever the artist desires, and in this performance art piece, it utilizes elements of protest, because that is what’s relevant to my life right now.’
Some details here (pretty graphic and pretty sad).
Cathy Young At The Daily Beast-‘Columbia Student: I Didn’t Rape Her’ Cathy Young At Minding The Campus: ‘The Brown Case: Does It Still Look Like Rape?