Solo Exhibitions

Sticks and Stones
City Point
Brooklyn, New York
July 2016

Curated by Steven and William Ladd

Commissioned as part of the development of City Point—a major public and commercial hub in Downtown Brooklyn—Sticks and Stones marked one of our largest community collaborations to date. As part of the City Point Scrollathon®, we worked with over 1,000 local students, teachers, community members, and administrators to create a permanent mural for the building’s atrium.

The mural, titled Fabulous Phil, is a 40-by-40-foot geometric artwork composed of more than 35,000 handmade papier-mâché beads. Visible from a block away, it was permanently installed in July 2016 and stands as a monument to collaborative creativity. Every participant began by titling and keeping their own bead, then each joined in the creation of the mural’s shared components. Everyone was photographed, and their portraits were featured in the exhibition alongside our own artworks.

“The exhibition’s title references a saying from our childhood—“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”—a mantra we repeated to deflect bullying from a neighborhood boy nicknamed Big-Shot-Danny.”

In conjunction with the mural’s unveiling, Sticks and Stones presented recent studio works and honored the many community members who had contributed to the City Point Scrollathon.

The project also signaled a shift in our materials and methods. For years, our work had centered around boxes and textiles. With Fabulous Phil, we discovered new possibilities in papier-mâché, integrating found objects and trinkets into vast, sculptural fields.

Sticks and Stones celebrated resilience, collaboration, and the unique spirit of the Downtown Brooklyn community. Meticulous craftsmanship, combined with a joyful narrative, manifested deep respect for everyone’s stories.

A key artwork featured in the exhibition was Radio Drive (2013), named after the street where we grew up. It’s composed of a 4-by-6-foot grid of handmade boxes filled with scrolls, beads, and metal, all evoking the feel of asphalt after rain, pockmarked with puddles and reflecting our earliest landscape memories.”

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