Where did Emma Sulkowicz come from?

Last updated on: June 9, 2015 at 8:29 pm by Jane the Actuary

Where did Emma Sulkowicz come from? 2015-06-09T20:29:50-06:00 Jane the Actuary

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Let’s start with the old Detroit Institute of Arts commercial I remember from my childhood, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc7dbwzPeKA

Yeah, back in the days when art was meant to be be enjoyed. . .

Anyway:

You’ve likely heard about Mattress Girl’s latest attempt to extend her 15 minutes of fame, a porn video with what she imagines to be compelling, thought-provoking commentary. See here, from the National Review, among other sources, for details. And if you’re wholly unfamiliar with Sulkowicz’s “art,” see Wikipedia for the art-world context, though it omits the more recent reporting that indicates pretty clearly that the university’s decision not to pursue the case was not a miscarriage of justice, but quite the opposite.

So: yes, from all reports the young woman is either disturbed or telling a tall tale to advance her own prospects in the world where being a victim opens doors. But let’s step back a bit: she just spent four years at a prestigious university studying art, and that which she stakes her career and her future on, is a mattress and a video with a set of pretentious, but ultimately childish, words.

How did she get here?

Who majors in studio art? What do they want to get out of it? Perhaps I’m naive when I imagine that an art major is someone who takes art classes in high school and enjoys some medium or another, or more than one — drawing/painting or sculpture, for instance.

Here’s the Columbia University list of requirements for an art major, and the descriptions of those courses. Essentially, the only specific requirements are a semester each of drawing and sculpture, five additional courses, a Contemporary Art Practice seminar, and the senior thesis. Did Sulkowicz hone her skills in “art” the way the rest of us think of it, painting, sculpting, etc., prior to making waves with her mattress? Does Columbia expect something like this as a “piece” because, say, a large mural or set of related paintings is too pedestrian? Or was she, from the start, interested in taking this shortcut to fame and fortune, rather than the time-intensive effort of producing traditional artwork?

Now, it seems to me that it’s common for a departmental website to offer at least brief comments on who might want to major in that field, but Columbia has nothing.

Here’s my alma mater:

Do you have a passion for ceramics, electronic art & Intermedia, graphic design, painting, printmaking, photography, or sculpture? Do you love to explore and create using the language of two and three dimensional form, space, and time? Then, we invite you to join the large, active group of students who are majoring in Studio Art. Whether you hope to become an exhibiting studio artist; a graphic designer in an ad agency, or a teacher of art, we have the place for you.

You should apply if…Making art is a necessity. Studio time is when you feel most alive. You happily lose yourself in the process. You love the feeling of transforming raw materials into an expressive form and finding connections where others see none. You want to be part of designing the world around you. You could re-draw, re-draft, re-drape, re-design, and re-imagine for hours on end. You look at a gallery space and see potential for a new experience. You look at art and see both a mirror and a window. The prospect of self-motivated research excites you. You know creative problem solving and seeking are the building blocks of the future no matter what the field. Meaningful engagement with other creative students is what you crave. And you know there’s nothing like the feeling of exploring a world-class art museum. If the above sounds like you, our program may be just where you belong.

Which kind of sounds like what I would have expected, students who love the process of creating. But this doesn’t sound like Sulkowicz.

I then poked around some more: here’s the page with student art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. There are a few pieces of “art” as most of us would think of it, such as this painting, or this set of watercolors, but it’s slim pickings.

So how does a student end up here? What path brings a kid who loves drawing and other art forms as a kid, to this? And where do they go next?

UPDATE:

Per twitter, I learned just now that Sulkowicz originally planned to major in physics, then switched to visual arts (see here for a timeline, and here for a profile mentioning this fact, along with her self-perception as a “hipster”, even if she was speaking ironically). In other words, perhaps she never transitioned from art to “art” but was keen on exactly this sort of “performance art” from the beginning, and may even have struggled through the requirements for traditional skill-based art.

Another thought: what if her accusations are all a part of the performance?

Another update: more thoughts here, as of Tuesday.

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