How do you throw a brick through the window… is a research initiative comprised of a symposium, artist-led workshops, and exhibitions, co-organized by Tufts University Art Galleries with John Michael Kohler Arts Center taking place from 2024–2026. The project invites artists Yani aviles, Chloe P. Crawford, Nat Decker, Jeff Kasper, Carly Mandel, Jeffrey Meris, and Libby Paloma to 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?” This long-term research project responds to calls for reconsideration of public streets as de-facto sites for civic action and able-bodied action as the measure of protest. Instead, participating artists offer new commissions and recent works reimagining embodied dissent informed by disabled, cripped, sick, mad, and healing frameworks. Within this guide you will find background information and publications by or about each of the Exhibiting Artists, as well as related thematic resources about Disability Studies and Activism, Museum Access, and Theory and Art History of Contemporary Art Engaging with Disability.
The exhibition is co-organized by TUAG Curator Laurel V. McLaughlin and John Michael Kohler Arts Center 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 Tufts University Diversity Fund, Office of the Vice Provost for Institutional Inclusive Excellence, Departments of Theatre Dance and Performance Studies and English, and an anonymous donor. The accompanying symposium, pre-exhibition programming, and publication are supported by a Warhol Foundation Curatorial Research Fellowship awarded to Laurel V. McLaughlin.
Research for this Education Guide was contributed by Exhibitions Intern Andrew Bailey and supported by TUAG Curator Laurel V. McLaughlin, Manager of Academic Programs Elizabeth Canter, and SMFA Library Research and Instruction Librarian Carrie Salazar.
Photo credit: Caption: Jeff Kasper, wrestling embrace (deck), 2017–2018. Deck of 54 (3 ½ x 5 ¾ in. each). Photo: Courtesy of the artist.
Key Questions/Questions for Self-Guided Exploration:
• The exhibition title refers to the question from Johanna Hedva: How do you throw a brick through the window of a bank if you can’t get out of bed? What do you think the curators mean by titling the exhibition this way? How does it connect to protest and public space?
• Artists such Carly Mandel, Jeffrey Meris, and Chloe P. Crawford invite us to think about medicalized objects or consumer goods, such as syringes, wheelchairs, and even toys seen in doctors' waiting rooms. How are these artists using their work to question healthcare procedures and norms based on their own experiences with these objects?
• In what ways can these works function as modes of resistance or even protest? In what ways can they expand our conceptions about public vs. private space?
• Many of the artists in How do you throw a brick through the window... experiment with sculptural methods of composition using everyday objects. Are there areas in your life or activities you use everyday objects in ways outside of their initial use? How are these practices generative?