Finnegan Shannon

Mentally I'm Here 1–3, 2023

Mentally I’m Here 1–3

Installation view of a large panel outside a building showing m hand holding a needlepoint tissue box shaped like a bed. Quilt-like patterns, shiny brass bedposts, and a lace-trimmed pillow decorate the bed. Text reads: “Big Absence, Small Presence”.

Image description: A billboard in front of a building showing a hand holding a needlepointed tissue box shaped like a bed. Fun details include: colorful designs that mimic a quilt, little shine marks on the bedposts make it look like a brass bed frame, and a tiny pillow with lace ruffle. Handwritten text bookends the image, reading "Big Absence, Small Presence.” Snow and parking lines are visible in the foreground.

A billboard installed in a large multi-paned window on the side of a building shows a needlepointed tissue box shaped like a house, held in my hand. My handwriting reads "Big Loss" and "Small Softness" with the exhibition's branding along the bottom.

Image description: A billboard installed within a large multi-paned window on the side of a building shows a needlepointed tissue box shaped like a house, held upright in a human hand. The house is white with a red front door, red window shutters, and a dark roof. There is handwritten text reading “Big Loss” on the left and “Small Softness” on the right. Along the bottom of the window, CAFKA’s “Stay With Me” biennial branding.

An outdoor billboard mounted on the side of a building shows a photograph of a green and white cross stitched tissue box shaped like a couch, held up by a hand. The image is framed by handwritten text, "Big Depression" and "Small Pleasure"

Image description: A billboard mounted on the side of a building shows a photograph of a needlepoint tissue box cover shaped like a couch, held up by a hand. It has the look of couches I remember from my 90s childhood: super cushy, pink and teal, floral patterned, maximalist. This one has blue and white stripes overlaid with a little roses, lace details, and three pillows. The tissue box cover is framed by handwritten text, “Big depression” and “Small pleasure,” with CAFKA’s “Stay With Me” biennial branding on the right side. Snow and parking lines are visible in the foreground.

 

  • About:
    Billboards of photographs of tissue box covers I made from vintage needlepoint kits shaped like a house, a bed, and a couch. They are framed with my handwriting with phrases, “Big absence, small presence”, “Big loss, small softness”, and “Big depression, small pleasure.”

    I worked on them during the early pandemic when having something small and structured to focus on helped me stay present. Tissue boxes are objects I return to when I am sick or sad, and these became soft, slightly silly stand-ins for care, comfort, and being held in place. I photographed the finished pieces in my apartment, often from bed, using what I had on hand. 

    Commissioned by CAFKA for Stay With Me.

  • Year: 2023

  • Materials: Billboards

  • Size: Dimensions variable

  • Photos by: Scott Lee