Emma Sulkowicz

Emma Sulkowicz was born on October 3, 1992, in New York City, New York, to Sandra Leong and Kerry Sulkowicz, both psychiatrists. She is of Chinese, Japanese, and Jewish descent. Sulkowicz attended the Dalton School on the Upper East Side, where she was an A student and a competitive fencer. She later pursued her higher education at Columbia University, where she fenced sabre for the Columbia University Lions fencing team. In 2015, she obtained a degree in visual arts.

During her time at Columbia University, Sulkowicz gained national attention for her performance artwork titled “Mattress Performance (Carry That Weight)” (2014–2015). This endurance performance involved carrying a mattress wherever she went on campus during her final undergraduate year, serving as a protest against campus sexual assault and the university’s handling of her sexual assault complaint. The project garnered significant media coverage, making Sulkowicz widely known as “Mattress Girl.” This work sparked broader conversations about sexual violence in academic environments and the responsibilities of institutions.

Following “Mattress Performance,” Sulkowicz continued to develop pieces that explored complex social themes. In 2015, she collaborated with artist Ted Lawson on “Ceci N’est Pas Un Viol” (This is not a rape), an eight-minute video examining sexual consent. From February to March 2016, her work “Self-Portrait” at Coagula Curatorial in Los Angeles featured a robotic replica, “Emmatron,” designed to answer frequently asked questions about her past work, allowing Sulkowicz to engage with new subjects. In 2017, she performed “The Ship Is Sinking,” a bondage performance exploring personal pain and societal roles. Her 2018 protest performance, where she wore lingerie and drawn-on asterisks at museums, responded to discussions about artists accused of misconduct. Later that year, her gallery installation “The Floating World” at The Invisible Dog in Brooklyn used glass orbs and Japanese bondage techniques to symbolize trauma and community support. By 2019, Sulkowicz had begun a master’s program in traditional Chinese medicine, stating she had stopped making art.