How do you throw a brick through the window… Public Reception

Join Tufts University Art Galleries at TUAG / Boston (SMFA at Tufts) for a community-wide celebration of How do you throw a brick through the window… featuring the work of seven artists—Yani aviles, Chloe P. Crawford, Nat Decker, Jeff Kasper, Carly Mandel, Jeffrey Meris, and Libby Paloma—who engage the radical questioning of Korean-American writer, artist, and musician Johanna Hedva: “How do you throw a brick through the window of a bank if you can’t get out of bed?”

Written in the aftermath of the 2014 Black Lives Matter protests, Hedva’s 2016 text “Sick Woman Theory” reverberates in the wake of 2020 protests for racial equity and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This long-term research project, which includes a symposium, artist-led workshops, and the group exhibition, responds to calls for reconsideration of public streets as de-facto sites for civic action and able-bodied action as the measure of protest. Participating artists offer works reimagining embodied dissent informed by disabled, sick, mad, and healing frameworks.

The exhibition is co-organized by TUAG Curator Laurel V. McLaughlin and JMKAC Associate Curator Tanya Gayer in dialogue with the artists. Exhibition design is provided by Emily Sara.

Generous support for this TUAG exhibition and programming is provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The Office of the Vice Provost for Institutional Inclusive Excellence and the Theatre Dance and Performance Studies Department, as well as an anonymous donor.

The accompanying symposium and pre-exhibition programming at TUAG were supported by a curatorial research fellowship for Laurel V. McLaughlin.

Image: Jeff Kasper, things remembered (I look fabulous but I’m in a lot of pain) , 2023. Etched compact mirror, 5 in. circumference. Image courtesy of the artist.