Finnegan Shannon

*Massage Chair

I Want To Believe

A massage chair sits within a yellow spiral on a museum gallery floor. Audio and a zine are paired with it, featuring a text composed from pain relief product ads using phrases like "eases aches and pains," and "long-lasting relief"

  • About:
    An installation of a massage chair at the center of a vinyl spiral on the floor. The chair is accompanied by an audio and it’s transcript of me reading a text composed from ad copy on the Hammacher Schlemmer "pain relief" product section (and similar websites).  For me, the piece is about the desire, promise, and impossibility of pain relief. And particularly the ways capitalism tends to overpromise the ability to purchase pain relief. But also how wonderful those promises sound.

    Created for Smoke and Mirrors at Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Jersey.

  • Year: 2024

  • Materials: Massage Chair, vinyl tape, audio, audio transcript zine

  • Size: Dimensions variable