Shannon Finnegan
Shannon Finnegan is a project-based artist. They experiment with forms of access that intervene in ableist structures with humor, earnestness, rage, and delight. Some of their recent work includes Anti-Stairs Club Lounge, an ongoing project that gathers people together who share an aversion to stairs; Alt-Text as Poetry, a collaboration with Bojana Coklyat that explores the expressive potential of image description; and Do You Want Us Here or Not, a series of benches and cushions designed for exhibition spaces. They have done projects with Banff Centre, Queens Museum, the High Line, MMK Frankfurt, the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, and Nook Gallery. Their work has been supported by a 2018 Wynn Newhouse Award, a 2019 residency at Eyebeam, 2020 grant from Art Matters Foundation, and a 2022 grant from The Canada Council for the Arts.
Full Interview:
Interview Transcription:
SPEAKERS
Molly Joyce, Shannon Finnegan
Molly Joyce 00:06
Okay, so the first question is, what is access for you?
Shannon Finnegan 00:22
Access for me is about being able to be together, either together in physical space or in digital space, or together through like having a shared experience. Yeah.
Molly Joyce 00:47
What is care for you?
Shannon Finnegan 00:58
Yeah, that's a tricky, um, I, I think I'm still really learning about what, what care is for me. Or how I understand it in the world, at different scales, and both like personally and myself as like a receiver of care and someone who gives care. But yeah, I think it's, to me, it's connected to the idea of interdependence. And that Yeah, none of us are, are independent. And so yeah, that we have this like, each other in lots of different ways.
Molly Joyce 02:05
Next one is what is control for you?
Shannon Finnegan 02:28
Let's say control to me is connected to power. And who has power or who has agency? And especially, when one person or group is using power to, to like limit? Or, or define a situation or experience or another person? Or beings? Yeah, yeah, I think. Yeah, another one that I feel like a little bit uncertain about, but I think that yeah, definitely connected to power and who and how that power is being used.
Molly Joyce 03:27
What is weakness for you?
Shannon Finnegan 03:54
I think weakness feels connected to fragility. Which I think of as kind of, like, the default way of, of being and existing in the world. And that when fragility is is like masked, or that that's often like, just kind of ignoring that. Yeah, I think especially thinking about like bodies or, like, I feel a lot of like weakness and fragility in my body and that feels really connected to you know, yeah, just how I'm used to the world and I interact with people who don't have that experience of their body but I often feel like that is kind of a miss that they're that they're living in and that their their body is not is not fragile.
Molly Joyce 04:59
What is strenght?
Shannon Finnegan 05:07
Oh, wait, would you say that again?
Molly Joyce 05:09
What is strength for you?
Shannon Finnegan 05:35
I think I used to feel like I needed to be strong or to have strengths. Sort of like, like, quote unquote, in spite of disability. And, and then recently I feel like I've been kind of reorienting away from strengths as even a positives because I think that term has been used in such kind of like manipulative ways or negative ways in terms of not allowing people to be vulnerable or to not allowing weakness. And so I don't know, I guess yeah, what what I'm struggling with an answering the question is like, I don't know if if I want to, like reinvent strength or something else, or if I just want to kind of, like discard it as Yeah, as something that I, I don't need to be like, striving for or oriented towards anymore. The next one is a little controversial. So again, feel free to if you don't want to answer
Molly Joyce 06:59
What is cure for you?
Shannon Finnegan 07:14
I think I never, I think, yeah, to me, my disability was always framed to me as as uncurable as something so that I think I'm yeah, my, like, the way that I've thought about that is just that that's like, kind of outside of my type, the realm of possibility. But I think that there is that's about survival and about. Yeah, like, being alive, being in less pain. And I'm always trying to balance or like, I guess, like, kind of intermingle. You know, doing things that make my body feel good or make me feel less than pain, while also not like, feeling like anything is promised in terms of what the future could hold.
Molly Joyce 08:41
What is interdependenc?
Shannon Finnegan 08:48
Interdependence as is like, just the most foundational part of existing. For me, it's just something that underlies everything about my life as a person and the communities and world and universe that I am in. Yeah. Sorry, it's a little bit like some ambient noise
Molly Joyce 09:53
What is assumption for you?
Shannon Finnegan 10:11
I associate assumption with kind of like the world of stereotypes or have like, Yeah, kind of preconceived ideas. A lot of times when I'm thinking about assumptions, it's in a context where someone is like making a choice for me about what I need, or what I want. Yeah.