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“Whether up river, up stream, or up a tree…don’t take the bait. Find the other rainbow fish and swim. conjures a familiar figurative expression of speech: “bigger fish to fry.” Artist Libby Paloma, in collaboration with photographer Heather Renée Russ, with assistance from SMFA at Tufts BFA ‘26 student Andrew Bailey, recalls the phrase while remembering feedback she has received living in the world with a disability. These phrases are often used to evoke humor, but to also to downplay lived experiences. Rather than ignoring the responses or allowing them to de-humanize her experiences, Paloma pushes these phrases to their literal endpoints through soft and campy textiles. In their larger practice, Paloma employs humor as a form of resistance to counter the dominant and reductive discourse that living with a disability is “tragic.”
Paloma sewed the glittery fish and black frying pans in this billboard using donated and recycled fabrics, employing craft practices passed down by the Chicanas in her family. Here, represented in wheatpaste, the work conveys the handmade quality through the luster of the fabrics and sequins in the image. The dented soft pans at the beginning and end poke fun at the phrase, as these rainbow fish will certainly not be fried in these fabric pans—they will not “take the bait” as Paloma notes in their title. Instead, the fish and pans highlight Paloma’s conception of “world softening,” an effort to instill tenderness in an otherwise harsh ableist world (discrimination against disabled people), the medical industry, and hyper-productivity within a capitalist society.”
Laurel McLaughlin, Curator and Director of the Collective Futures Fund, Tufts University
Billboard installation by Libby Paloma, Whether up river, up stream, or up a tree…don’t take the bait. Find the other rainbow fish and swim., Tufts University Art Galleries, Medford, MA. Photo: Mel Taing.