Texas State University Art Student Strips Down to Raise Awareness About Sexual Assault
By Reynaldo Leanos Jr.
News Director
Texas State University student Monika Rostvold sat semi-naked and blindfolded in front of Alkek Library earlier today for 45 minutes.
Rostvold says she wanted to create a piece about standards in our society and being a survivor of sexual assault wanted to take control of her body and eliminate her presence and expose herself.
Rostvold also wanted people to view her body as beauty and not as a sexual object.
Listen to the full interview below.
Can you talk a little bit about the piece you demonstrated today and where did this idea stem from?
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Texas State University Art Student Strips Down to Raise Awareness About Sexual Assault
Were you surprised by the way social media and the public reacted to this?
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Texas State University Art Student Strips Down to Raise Awareness About Sexual Assault
How does it make you feel knowing you impacted some people and sparked a conversation on campus?
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Texas State University Art Student Strips Down to Raise Awareness About Sexual Assault
What was going on in your mind while you were sitting there?
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Texas State University Art Student Strips Down to Raise Awareness About Sexual Assault
Can you walk me through the planning process and what it was like when you woke up today?
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Texas State University Art Student Strips Down to Raise Awareness About Sexual Assault
Were your friends and professors nervous for you?
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Texas State University Art Student Strips Down to Raise Awareness About Sexual Assault
What kind of prepping did you do beforehand?
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Texas State University Art Student Strips Down to Raise Awareness About Sexual Assault
What was the conversation like with UPD when they arrived on the scene and were you surprised by their reaction?
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Texas State University Art Student Strips Down to Raise Awareness About Sexual Assault
How do you feel now that it’s all over?
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Texas State University Art Student Strips Down to Raise Awareness About Sexual Assault
How would you describe sensuality, what is sexy and all these other things that you discuss in your art?
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Texas State University Art Student Strips Down to Raise Awareness About Sexual Assault
How would you respond to those who say what you did isn’t art?
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Texas State University Art Student Strips Down to Raise Awareness About Sexual Assault
Do you want to talk about what the actual project itself was and what did you want the end result to be?
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Texas State University Art Student Strips Down to Raise Awareness About Sexual Assault
Is there anything else you want to add, or clear up?
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Texas State University Art Student Strips Down to Raise Awareness About Sexual Assault
Mary Van Zant on April 27, 2015
She should have said she “has the ovaries!” (not the balls).
Ktsw, you should post a transcript.
gracegalore on May 11, 2015
Yes, I thought that too!
T Boz on April 28, 2015
if she says “like” one more time in her interview…..good grief. If you’re going to try and do something edgy and artistic, at least sound intelligent in your interview. Now I look at her as a girl who sat naked on Texas State campus to get attention.
Hannah on April 28, 2015
“Like”, “um”,”uh”, “you know what I mean”… Was said in every clip, way too many times.. She had no real goal with any of this… Wasn’t even prepared for her interview. Not trying to be mean, I 100% respect women standing up for their rights, but wtf? this in NO way raises attention for sexual harassment prevention, just asks for more of said harassment by making herself into a spectacle and portraying herself
as an object desperately seeking attention. Be a woman. Only the man (or woman) you love should see you like that. Good job???
Amor DeCosmos on April 29, 2015
“Well there was definitely LIKE I heard whenever I was in performances that people were LIKE “What the heck is she doing” and LIKE, LIKE other people were LIKE, “I think she’s trying to do LIKE a piece performance art thing” and they’re LIKE “No, no, no,” and ahhhh I mean, take it how you want it but I mean LIKE I did this just as kind of LIKE experiment to see how people would be and LIKE you know some people so many art is so broad. Music is art, poetry is art.”
That’s, like, 10 LIKES in 30 seconds. That means you, like, uses the word LIKE, on average, like, once every three seconds. I am sorry – like, if you talk like a fourteen year old, then, like, it’s very hard to, like, listen to what you are, like, saying.
Lisa G. on April 29, 2015
The vocal fry in her responses is out of control.
Gaia on May 2, 2015
The thing is this is neither groundbreaking nor shocking. So she sat on some steps naked, well done. Have a cookie. She also didn’t have a coherent point or message, which is a key part of performance art. Yes I understand that it might have been based on something important to her, and yes it must have been pretty nerve wracking and uncomfortable, but the message she’s trying to convey is not a new one, and she hasn’t put an awful lot of thought into what she’s actually trying to say. Some vague, general statement about not objectifying and harassing women and not being ashamed of your body. I’m sorry, but this is something that has been covered a thousand times in ways that were far more effective, coherent and powerful. So I’m sorry, yes I get what she was trying to do, but as performance art goes its pretty weak.