Finnegan Shannon

I Want to Believe, 2025

I Want to Believe

 
Five long blue banners hand on a wall. There is lots of small white text listed on the banners with copy from pain relief product advertising like “speeds recovery” and “soothes, warms”
 

  • About:
    An installation of a poem assembled from the many promises of pain relief that medical devices and treatments offer. Displayed and painted on five banners in white text on a blue background, the poem responds to the Shaker medicines and assistive devices on view nearby. I titled them I Want to Believe in reference to the hope for technology to play a supportive role in disabled life while still acknowledging how it is often shaped by harmful power structures.

    Created for the traveling exhibition, The Shakers: A World in the Making.

  • Year: 2025

  • Size: five banners: 21 ½ x 104 in; 21 ½ x 104 in;  21 7/8 x 104 ½ in;  21 ½ x 108 ½ in;  21 ½ x 104 in

  • Materials: Fabric, fabric paint, pain relief product advertising copy 

  • Photo by:  Bernhard Strauss