How do you throw a brick through the window… is a multi-pronged research initiative, galvanizing the radical questioning of writer, artist, astrologer, and disability non-binary Korean-American activist, Johanna Hedva, who asks in her text, “Sick Woman Theory” (2016): “How do you throw a brick through the window of a bank if you can’t get out of bed?” In the wake of the 2014 Black Lives Matter protests and through critical disability studies, Hedva opposes the Arendtian conception of political action as able-bodied action in the streets, speculating about the potential of embodied forms of dissent from the bed, the home, or other states of convalescence. Participating artists will convene a symposium, two phases of workshops, and a publication delving into their research querying Hedva’s contention with “public” protest, investigating private protest forms. The research initiative ultimately questions who determines what is “public,” how private spaces open onto social relations radically, and how protest is configured outside of an ableist socio-political imaginary.
Laurel V. McLaughlin
“Art is what you can get away with.”
Andy Warhol