A spokesperson says---
"... an installation grounded in artist Finnegan Shannon's longtime fantasy of an exhibition space that would meet their access needs. The PW Resident Alum reimagines a 12-foot mechanized conveyor belt as a vehicle to bring artworks to visitors, who are invited to sit on surrounding furniture and engage with a parade of objects through any combination of touch, sight, and sound. During its three-month run, the interactive installation acts as a foundation for three successive solo presentations of new works created for this project by emerging and established figures of New York City's disability art scene: Joselia Rebekah Hughes, Ariana Martinez, and Alex Dolores Salerno.
Thoughtfully designed as a space for rest and play, There is no me without you continues Shannon's ongoing exploration of conveyor belts...
The title stems from Shannon's relationship to the concept of interdependence, particularly as it pertains to disability culture. The artist emphasizes the collaborative nature of both their practice and their everyday life—made possible through a community of writers, artists, activists, and friends—and challenges the concept of the individualized 'genius.'
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The new exhibition at Pioneer Works will open with a presentation by Ariana Martinez... a soundscape accompanied by a collection of objects that comprise a "tactile score.” Using contact microphones to make environmental field recordings, it explores touch as a shared language between ecologically entangled entities...
... the installation will host Joselia Rebekah Hughes's Masque On: Y'all taking spiritual hits; I'm making plans, a multi-channel video on portable DVD players in which the artist performs as actor, editor, writer, and researcher. Using Black study-informed disability methods and interventions, Hughes interweaves her concerns and priorities with escape routes and linguistic capacities to explore the aesthetics of being Black, alive, disabled, and laughing.
The final presentation... originates from Alex Dolores Salerno's personal and familial experience with coffee, while investigating the debilitating relationships between commodity crops, colonial exploitation, and the climate crisis. Through touch, play, and stim with ritualistically crafted objects as well as found and archival materials, the work prompts us to ground the ritual of daily coffee in a deeper sense of connection and responsibility to the past, present, and future..."
