The document discusses Emma Sulkowicz's 2014 performance art piece "Carry That Weight" where she carried her mattress everywhere at Columbia University to protest the university's handling of her sexual assault case, as well as Vik Muniz's art project where he collaborated with garbage pickers in Brazil to create artwork out of trash. It also provides ideas and reactions from others about both artists' works.

1. Field Trip to the Queens Museum
to see Mel Chin and Flint Fashion
Thursday May 24, 2;30pm

2. VIK MUNIZ
MEL CHIN
Work on final assignment
Work on final assignment

3. EMMA SULKOWICZ

4. EMMA SULKOWICZ “Carry That Weight”
Performance 2014
Sulkowicz had carried the mattress everywhere she went on
campus since the beginning of her senior year last fall, vowing
to continue to do so until she graduated — or until Columbia
expelled a classmate she accused of rape in April 2013. More
than seven months earlier, she says, a close friend raped her
during what had until that point been a consensual encounter at
the start of their sophomore year.
Columbia investigated, held
a hearing and cleared the
accused rapist of
responsibility, though he
encountered countless acts
of bullying and harassment
for his remaining time at
Columbia.

5. EMMA SULKOWICZ “Carry That Weight”
Performance 2014
This is an issue Columbia has tried to address. Last summer, the
university announced significant changes to its sexual assault
and harassment procedures. Students are now permitted to bring
a lawyer to their hearings, and if they can’t afford an attorney, the
university will provide one. The university also hired new
investigators and other staff members and gave training on how
to hear cases to the administrators who serve as panelists.
Columbia also started a “sexual respect initiative” aimed at
prevention.

6. EMMA SULKOWICZ “Carry That Weight”
Performance 2014
The result of all this led to the procedural disputes between Sulkowicz
and the accused are lost in the land of she-said-he-said.
Sulkowicz has accused university administrators of a litany of failures,
including asking ignorant and insensitive questions about the physical
positions that she and the accused had engaged in during sex. (She
says that one panelist remarked, “I don’t know how it’s possible to
have anal sex without lubrication first.”)

7. EMMA SULKOWICZ
“Carry That Weight”
Performance 2014
Columbia officials asked
Sulkowicz not to carry the
mattress onstage, but in
the end let her go ahead.
As she approached the
University president to
shake his hand, he
unexpectedly turned
away.
The next day, the campus
woke up to nasty posters
in the neighborhood, with
a picture of Sulkowicz and
her mattress and the
words “Pretty Little Liar”
and “#RAPEHOAX.” The
trolling has since
continued online.

8. EMMA SULKOWICZ “Carry That Weight”
Performance 2014
This is an issue Columbia has tried to address. In Summer of
2016, the university announced significant changes to its sexual
assault and harassment procedures. Students are now permitted
to bring a lawyer to their hearings, and if they can’t afford an
attorney, the university will provide one. The university also hired
new investigators and other staff members and gave training on
how to hear cases to the administrators who serve as panelists.
Columbia also started a “sexual respect initiative” aimed at
prevention.

9. EMMA SULKOWICZ “Carry That Weight”
Performance 2014
REACTIONS…
•Kend: Their immediate response wasn’t good at all. They’re in the wrong for
that. But they’re doing this to show that they’re making effort to right this issue.
•Tatiana: Agreed. They’re making it more about on the victims telling the truth
than the perpetrator.
•Tenz: With more victims coming forward, I think they had no choice but to
create these protocols.
• Kozak: Could the colleges actions help more victims come forward?
•.
•.

10. EMMA SULKOWICZ “Carry That Weight”
Performance 2014
REACTIONS…
•Arwynn: Sometimes when people give light sentences to rapists (Brock Turner, ugh),
they ignore that the victim has to ‘carry’ this with them for the rest of their life. Her art
shows this burden very literally, physically. It draws attention to how big an issue this is.
•Michael: It’s crazy that this well known ivy league school did NOTHING about it at the
time. She has to live with this scar on her life now.
•Sakin: It’s not surprising that Columbia didn’t do anything about this, because they
want to protect their image.
•Katelyn: Any college that tries to protect their image is just stupid. You select your
students, and once they’re on campus, you’re responsible for them. What’s the real
message here? That you can do whatever you want?

12. Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver
Kochta-Kalleinen
Complaints choir
Videos!!

13. Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver
Kochta-Kalleinen
FROM
http://www.complaintschoir.org/doityourself.html
STEP 1 ﾐ Invite People to Complain
STEP 2 ﾐ Find the Right Musician
STEP 3 ﾐ Group the Complaints
STEP 4 ﾐ The First Choir Meeting: Making the Lyrics
STEP 5 ﾐ Making the Song
STEP 6 ﾐ Rehearsing
STEP 7 ﾐ Preparing the Grand Performance
STEP 8 ﾐ Go out and Sing your Complaints -
Together
STEP 9 ﾐ The Video

14. Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver
Kochta-Kalleinen
Complaints choir
Videos AND RESPONSES!

15. Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver
Kochta-Kalleinen
Complaints choir
Videos AND RESPONSES!

17. BRAZIIIIIIIL!
Large
Jesus
Statues!
Endless
Sandy
Beaches!
Decadent
Carnival
Costumes!
The only country
To run out of silicon
For breast implants!
BRAZIIIIIIIL!

18. BRAZIIIIIIIL!
Brazil is also home to Jardim Gramacho…a small suburb
of Rio de Janeiro….which happens to also be home to the
largest land fill in the South America…and one of the largest
open air land fills in the world.

19. Jardim Gramacho
300 feet high of garbage
Covering over 322 acres of land….
MLK Education Campus = 70 ft high
Central Park is
840 acres…
Imagine the
lower 1/3 of it
covered a pile of
garbage 300 feet
high…

20. Jardim Gramacho
And people live right around here in
slums
called ‘favelas’

21. Jardim Gramacho
Also home to the “pickers” who sift through
The the piles of garbage looking for recyclable
materials like plastic bottles, glass, metal, etc.
These materials are collected in bulk and sold
by the kilogram to recycling companies.
Rio de Janeiro has no formal recycling program
as a part of its garbage collection service.

22. VIK MUNIZ
Lives in Brooklyn….but he’s A
Sao paulo native!
Self portrait (I am too sad to tell you)
2003
photograph

23. Pictures of Chocolate (1997)
VIK MUNIZ

24. Pictures of Chocolate (1997)
VIK MUNIZ

25. Pictures of Chocolate (1997)
VIK MUNIZ

26. Pictures of Chocolate (1997)
VIK MUNIZ
Jackson Pollock

27. Pictures of Chocolate (1997)
VIK MUNIZ

28. Back to Gramacho…
In 2008, Vik Muniz travelled back to his
hometown to work with the garbage pickers at
Jardim Gramacho…
He met them…
Interviewed them…
Photographed them….
& hired them to make art with him…

29. VIK MUNIZ
Jardim GRAMACHO
(pictures of garbage)

30. VIK MUNIZ
Death of Marat
By Jacques Louis
David
1793
Oil on canvas
French Revolutionary Leader Jean Paul
Marat was killed in his bathtub…the artist
dramatized this painting by adding a letter
in his hand that read:
“Il suffit que je sois bien malheureuse pour
avoir droit a votre bienveillance”
“It is because I am unhappy, that I have a
right to your kindness.”

31. VIK MUNIZ
Jardim GRAMACHO
(pictures of garbage)
Isis!

32. VIK MUNIZ
Jardim GRAMACHO
(pictures of garbage)

33. VIK MUNIZ
Jardim GRAMACHO
(pictures of garbage)
WHAT I WANT TO BE ABLE TO DO IS CHANGE THE LIVES OF PEOPLE
ITH THE SAME MATERIALS THAT THEY DEAL WITH EVERYDAY.”

34. VIK MUNIZ
Marco: Instead of making something ”new” he uses something that’s already
in existence. It’s like recycling.
Sakin: He’s using this trash and making artwork out of it. But afterwards it’s all
swept up?
Prince: IT’s all still there though. People are still living near it, picking through
the garbage.
Michael: I just think the little pieces of garbage are constant reminders of how
much waste there is in this world. We USE so much! Our waste can turn into
something beneficial, though?
HAT I WANT TO BE ABLE TO DO IS CHANGE THE LIVES OF PEOPLE
TH THE SAME MATERIALS THAT THEY DEAL WITH EVERYDAY.”

35. VIK MUNIZ
Christian: It’s great, he’s usibng the garbage thart had no meaning, but making it
into art. He’s showing us how we’re destroying out earth.
Dakota: With this piece, I like the irony of it. All the garbage has this oppressive
aspect to it, just to make a few dollars and just to get by. And it encapsulates the
people who work on it too.
Vraj: I like how he uses things that are disgusting or things that we depend on. He
sells it and makes it helpful for the people who help him.
Jaylieen: He uses different matertials that can represent other things. He’s
making something out of nothing.
.
.
HAT I WANT TO BE ABLE TO DO IS CHANGE THE LIVES OF PEOPLE
TH THE SAME MATERIALS THAT THEY DEAL WITH EVERYDAY.”

36. VIK MUNIZ
Jardim GRAMACHO
(pictures of garbage)

37. VIK MUNIZ
Jardim GRAMACHO
(pictures of garbage)

38. VIK MUNIZ
Jardim GRAMACHO
(pictures of garbage
2008 TRAVELS TO RIO DE JANIERO (HIS HOMETOWN) TO WORK WITH
GARBAGE PICKERS
FROM JARDIM GRAMACHO (321 ACRES, LARGEST IN SOUTH AMERICA)
THEY RECEIVE MORE TRASH THAN ANY OTHER LANDFILL IN THE WORLD
LIFTED MORE THAN JUST THE WORKER’S IMAGE THROUGH HIS ART.
ALL THE WORKERS WERE WELL PAID FOR THEIR TIMES AND
CONTRIBUTED
MATERIALS
ALL THE ARTWORK HE CREATED FROM THIS PROJECT WAS AUCTIONED,
AND HE DONATED
HIS ENTIRE PROFIT
HE CONTINUES TO COLLABORATE WITH THE GROUP TO HELP ENACT A
FORMAL
RECYCLING PROGRAM IN BRAZIL.
WHAT I WANT TO BE ABLE TO DO IS CHANGE THE LIVES OF PEOPLE
WITH THE SAME MATERIALS THAT THEY DEAL WITH EVERYDAY.

39. The Laundromat Project
….next year?
http://laundromatproject.org/

40. Your ideas!
What are some specific things you’ll need to plan for ahead
of time?
How is this idea potentially problematic? What are the
obstacles from making this idea a reality?