For 9 months, Emma Sulkowicz carried through the hallways of Columbia University the mattress that, according to her account, was the one on which she had been raped by a fellow student. She turned it into a public protest against the university’s response to her complaint and said she would keep carrying it as long as the student remained on campus.
“Taking the mattress out of my room and carrying it into the light has reflected the way my life has changed as I made my story public”, she told TIME in 2014. Her promise was specific: she would stop carrying it if the student was expelled or voluntarily left Columbia. If neither happened, she would continue until her graduation.
But neither of those conditions was met. The accused denied the assault and maintained that the encounter was consensual. Columbia, for its part, found him not responsible and did not expel him.
Sulkowicz continued carrying the mattress throughout her senior year, turning every walk across campus into part of her performance “Mattress Performance (Carry That Weight)”.