How do you throw a brick through the window…

How do you throw a brick through the window… presents new commissions and recent works of art exploring how individuals with disabilities navigate forms of protest despite the normalization of ableism in public spaces.

Opening at Tufts University Art Galleries (TUAG) September 2, 2025 and on view at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center (JMKAC) February 28–Oct. 25, 2026, the exhibition is part of a two-year research initiative co-organized by TUAG and JMKAC that began in 2024.

How do you throw a brick through the window… features 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 writer, artist, astrologer, and disabled non-binary Korean-American activist, 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 TUAG exhibitions and programming is provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. The accompanying symposium and pre-exhibition programming at TUAG were supported by a curatorial research fellowship for Laurel V. McLaughlin.

Image: Jeffery Meris, Lift Up Your Head, 2024. Stainless steel, underarm crutches, zip-ties, 156" x 156" x 156”. Courtesy of the Artist and François Ghebaly Gallery. Photo by Marc Tatti.