Columbia University art student Emma Sulkowicz has pledged to carry her dorm-sized mattress around every day until her alleged rapist leaves school. The 21- year old says she was raped in her own bed at the beginning of her sophomore year, and that she will carry her mattress with her as part of her senior thesis depicting the emotional weight survivors of sexual assault carry with them on a daily basis.

Her senior thesis is titled, "Mattress Performance," or "Carry that Weight," and is what Sulkowicz calls an endurance art piece. According to USA Today, Sulkowicz stated that the mattress is just the right size - "light enough to manage, but heavy enough that I continue to struggle with it," further reflecting the depth of the burden.

She also sees the act of carrying her mattress in public as a way of representing private space being dragged into the public. Sulkowicz told the Huffington Post, "The past year or so of my life has been really marked by telling people what happened in that most intimate private space and bringing it out into the light... I think the act of carrying something that is normally found in our bedroom out into the light is supposed to mirror the way I've talked to the media."

The alleged rapist has not received any form of punishment so far. According to Time, Sulkowicz and two other women reported the same person to the university within the previous year. However, the alleged attacker was found not responsible, and all three cases were dismissed.

Sulkowicz's university hearing was hard for her to go through, as well. The Huffington Post reports that when her case made it to a hearing seven months after the actual incident, administrators were confused about how anal rape could happen. Sulkowicz drew a diagram to help clarify her experience, which in turn made her feel physically ill.

Time reports that Sulkowicz cannot ask for help carrying her mattress, but can accept help when offered - further portraying the injustice sexual assault survivors are subject to.