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Yesterday, I read an article about Emma Sulkowicz, a Columbia student who has created a performance art piece in response to being raped in her dorm room. And how the fact that her attacker still goes free, in fact, he goes to the same school she attends. She has come up with a beautiful way of expressing her struggle. I won’t try to explain it here, as hearing it in her own words is better. (Here is a link to the original article and the video of Emma…) I’ll just say that the art piece involves carrying around her dorm room mattress everywhere. I like what she is doing. I understand it. I relate to it.
For me, that mattress becomes a representation of the lost security, the burden of the rape, and a reminder to everyone that even though we don’t talk about it… or deal with it… or find resolution from it or for it… rape is ever present. How we deal with that fact… is both personal and societal.
As I watch Emma carrying that mattress next to her body, I just think how many of us are also carrying our own “mattresses”? In my head… a vivid scene pops up… I imagine a crowd full of people all carrying their own private “mattresses”. I imagine a business office with a smart dressed successful professional running a meeting with a mattress on her back. A teacher teaching a class… a police officer… a army officer… a movie star… a stay at home parent… all going about their lives with the burden of a mattress. Can you see it?
Maybe you know someone who carries one…
Perhaps you carry one…
I do…
After watching Emma carry hers so publicly… it makes me think. I may be lucky, I don’t feel particularly burdened by mine. I have had so many knock downs in my life that I just have to get back up and keep going. I don’t give it the power to take away from my life. I want to be the one in control of me. I suppose every once in a while, I trip over the edge of my mattress. When that happens, I stop and think, then I go on… I don’t feel the need for help carrying it. It doesn’t define who I am…
Then I think about Emma… and all the others who might still need help. What if… what if we could see all the mattresses being carried? What if others could see that I carry one too… would it help? Would it make carrying their own just a little bit easier?
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Day 4 of my September project.
Today is “Thoughtful Thursday” … just a little bit of a response to something that made me think… A little thinking can be a dangerous thing…
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September’s different themes for each day of the week:
“Macro Monday”
“Tale Spin Tuesday”
“Whatever Wednesday”
“Thoughtful Thursday”
“Family Friday”
“Caturday Saturday”
& “Seriously Silly Sunday”
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Image and words by Cicely Robin Laing © 2014
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Life as Art... and a bit of nonsense... 