On Thursday, April 10, a 27-foot truck rolled up outside of John M. Greene Hall with an emphatic statement plastered across its flank: “YOUR BODY IS A BATTLEGROUND”.
Repurposed to fit across the side of the vehicle, the iconic phrase originally debuted at the 1989 Women’s March on Washington by feminist artist Barbara Kreuger, known for her iconic bold typography in stark red, white and black. A curated exhibit sits inside the truck bed like it was plucked out of a museum, walled with prints, textile art and zine collections that depict interlocking themes of feminism, queerness, reproductive justice and human rights.
“We definitely got a lot of dudes on the road giving us the finger,” said Ann Lewis, the tour director for the gallery-on-wheels. “The truck did get shot with a paintball gun once when we were driving […] but aside from that, it’s been pretty quiet.”
The vehicle is part of an ongoing exhibition called “Body Freedom for Every(body)” by the Project for Empty Space, a Newark-based art coalition. It has been on tour all over the United States; in 2024 it logged almost 10,000 miles cross-country, partnering with various universities, museums and nonprofit art organizations to bring the art directly to the audience — and in this case, directly to unsuspecting Smithies.
Some met the exhibit with initial abrasion. In response to a post on the Smith Confessional (Confesh) asking what the truck was for, one anonymous user wrote: “idk but it pissed me off. no my body is not a f***ing battleground brah it’s my body and it’s mine”, to which another commenter replied, “is that not the point?”
The other side of the truck that faced away from the main path is also a Krueger piece; a custom vinyl wrap made specifically for the exhibit that displays the words “HEALTHCARE; GENDER; HOUSING; CIVIL; HUMAN; RIGHTS”.
The indoor portion of the exhibit changes depending on the stop, with 35 different versions of the gallery tailored by the exhibit curators.
“If there are specific artists from the area featured in our show or specific issues going on in that place, we’ll make sure to pick and choose the prints based on that,” said Lewis.
All of the pieces displayed are print reproductions (for liability purposes) that include works by Ana Mandieta, Mickalene Thomas, Marilyn Minter, Laurie Simmons, Shahzia Sikander, Dredd Scott, Ryan McGinley, Andrea Bowers and many more. However, one aspect of the exhibit that never gets rotated out is an ongoing interactive project on abortion.
Just inside the gallery entrance, a small table was set up next to the entrance stairs with an array of colorful slips of paper, each signifying a different statement. A dark blue slip meant “I support abortions”; purple meant “I am anti-abortion”; light blue meant “I have had an abortion”; and so on. Visitors were encouraged to pick out all the colored slips that were true to their own feelings and experiences, put them all in a sealed envelope, and drop the envelope into a fake ballot box to be eventually used in a large, crowdsourced art piece.
“We’re not just going to locations to preach to the choir,” said Lewis. “We’re wanting to go places that will engage with the dialogue around queer liberation, trans joy, reproductive rights, all of that.”
The truck was a gift to the Project for Empty Space and had previously been used to haul artwork, making it ideal for a mobile gallery. However, Lewis and Gabrielle Simmons, the truck driver, are the only ones actually on the road. Lewis is an artist by trade and longtime activist for reproductive rights, and Simmons — once the vice president of the company She Trucking — runs her own trucking business.
The tour initially began in September of 2024 and was only intended to last three months. Since the election of Donald Trump, it has kicked back up again. Smith, according to Lewis, had been on the list of pit stops for a long time.
According to the exhibit’s mission statement, the project directors were interested in prioritizing locations that might not have robust reproductive justice networks due to social and political constraints, while also serving as a traveling tool for education.
“Now more than ever, we believe this work is essential, and we will keep using our mobile exhibition space as a vehicle for nationwide community-building,” say Rebecca Pauline Jampol and Jasmine Wahi, the creators of the exhibit, on the Project for Empty Space’s website. “Body Freedom is an issue that impacts Every. Single. Person.”
Public reactions — paintball guns aside — have been generally positive in Lewis’s point of view. Still, necessary precautions have been taken.
“I think it would be a very different story if we weren’t partnering with organizations,” said Lewis. “In order to keep the art and, literally, us safe, we aren’t just going to roll up into a Walmart parking lot or anything like that. […] But thankfully, most of it has been positive.”
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