Focusing on the Reception of this artwork, explain the Praise about the Other responses.
Praise Numerous art critics responded positively to Mattress Performance. Artnet cited it as "almost certainly ... one of the most important artworks of the year", comparing it to Ana Mendieta's Untitled (Rape Scene) (1973) and Suzanne Lacy and Leslie Labowitz-Starus's Three Weeks in May (1977). Performance artist Marina Abramović praised it. The New York Times art critic Roberta Smith described it as "strict and lean, yet inclusive and open ended, symbolically laden yet drastically physical", writing that comparisons to the Stations of the Cross and Hester Prynne's scarlet letter were apparent. Jerry Saltz, art critic for New York magazine, included it in his list of the best 19 art shows of 2014, calling "clear, to the point, insistent, adamant ... pure radical vulnerability".The political response was marked too. Nato Thompson, chief curator of Creative Time, said he could not think of another case where art had triggered a movement in the way Mattress Performance had. Hillary Clinton told the DNC Women's Leadership Forum in September 2014: "That image should haunt all of us ..." In October 2014, Columbia students carried 28 mattresses on campus, one for each student who joined the federal Title IX complaint, then left them outside the home of university president Lee Bollinger; they were fined $471 for the clean-up. A group called "Carry That Weight" organized a "National Day of Action to Carry That Weight" on October 29, 2014, during which students carried mattresses on 130 US campuses and several elsewhere. Sulkowicz received the National Organization for Women's Susan B. Anthony Award and the Feminist Majority Foundation's Ms. Wonder Award.In January 2015, New York's U.S. senator Kirsten Gillibrand invited Sulkowicz to attend the 2015 State of the Union Address. Families Advocating for Campus Equality said the invitation was "undeserved and violates the principles of confidentiality and gender equality of Title IX", and that Sulkowicz had "failed to establish any wrongdoing" on the part of Nungesser.In 2015, Sulkowicz was included in The Forward's Forward 50 as one of the year's fifty most influential Jewish-Americans.
Hillary Clinton Hester Prynne New York Ana Mendieta Suzanne Lacy Title IX National Organization for Women art critic Marina Abramović Forward 50 Untitled (Rape Scene) Leslie Labowitz-Starus Stations of the Cross DNC Lee Bollinger Feminist Majority Foundation Artnet Roberta Smith Creative Time Families Advocating for Campus Equality 2015 State of the Union Address The Forward scarlet letter Performance art U.S. senator Jerry Saltz Kirsten Gillibrand Three Weeks in May