Image description: A black background sports a boxy, abstract shape of red lines and the words cripping monuments in large white capital letters. The Monument Lab logo of a plinth with pages turning and the phrase “public workshop” are in the top corner. Square, grayscale images of the featured speakers are in a line to the right of the image: alexa dexa plays their harp with a bow in their hair; Finnegan Shannon looks at the camera, dressed in a striped shirt with close cropped hair; and Johanna Hedva, clad in black lounges on a black chair.
Monument Lab defines “monument” as “a statement of power and presence in public.” This definition underscores monuments’ significant influence and visibility in our shared spaces. However, too often “public” excludes the disabled and chronically ill. Many cannot reach existing monuments due to physical and social access barriers, including inaccessible architecture; inequity of resources such as lack of time, finances, energy, and transportation; and the continuing threat of COVID-19.
The disabled constitute the largest minority group in the US, with 27% of adults living with a disability according to the National Institute of Health, and people of color and LGBTQIA+ people comprise a disproportionately large percentage of the disabled population. The absence of inclusive design and consideration in public spaces further marginalizes a significant portion of the population—on top of the inequity they encounter daily—even as a lack of representation perpetuates the erasure of disabled people in historical memory and public consciousness.
Bringing together artists whose practices contend with public-ness in light of their own lived experience with disability and chronic illness, this virtual session featuring presenters alexa dexa, Johanna Hedva, Finnegan Shannon and moderated by Monument Lab Senior Project Manager and Curatorial Associate Aubree Penney, will investigate how monuments can better anticipate and celebrate every body.
Presenters
alexa dexa (they/them) is a queer, non-binary, sick, mad, + disabled toychestral electroacoustic composer-performer, technologist, and crip xXgrandmacoreXx sound witch reimagining opera as remote crip rituals that activate transformative care and Disabled joy. Envisioning online performances as living art forms with all the wonder and potential of in-person performances, and even more, alexa dexa generates collaborative accessibility-centered experiences that nurture strong community bonds. Channeling intimacy and interdependence, alexa dexa fosters live participatory operas where audiences are active and equal creators and the outcomes are spectacular surprises. Something we do together, a living conversation and co-creation space where we share ourselves and make magic together, for each other.
Johanna Hedva (they/them) is a Korean American writer, artist, and musician, who was raised in Los Angeles by a family of witches, and now lives in LA and Berlin. Hedva is the author essay collection How To Tell When We Will Die: On Pain, Disability, and Doom, published September 2024, by Hillman Grad Books. They are also the author of the novels Your Love Is Not Good and On Hell, as well as Minerva the Miscarriage of the Brain, a collection of poems, performances, and essays. Their albums are Black Moon Lilith in Pisces in the 4th House and The Sun and the Moon. Their work has been shown in Berlin at Gropius Bau, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Klosterruine, and Institute of Cultural Inquiry; in Los Angeles at JOAN, HRLA, in the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time, and the LA Architecture and Design Museum; The Institute of Contemporary Arts in London; Performance Space New York; Buk-Seoul Museum of Art and Gyeongnam Art Museum in South Korea; the 14th Shanghai Biennial; Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Zürich; Modern Art Oxford; Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Bolzano; the Museum of Contemporary Art on the Moon; and in the Transmediale, Unsound, Rewire, and Creepy Teepee Festivals. Their writing has appeared in Triple Canopy, frieze, The White Review, Topical Cream, Spike, Die Zeit, and is anthologized in Whitechapel: Documents of Contemporary Art. Their essay “Sick Woman Theory,” published in 2016, has been translated into 11 languages.
Finnegan Shannon (they/them) is an artist experimenting with forms of access. They intervene in ableist structures with humor, earnestness, and rage. Some of their recent work includes Alt Text as Poetry, a collaboration with Bojana Coklyat that explores the expressive potential of image description; Do You Want Us Here or Not, a series of benches and cushions designed for exhibition spaces; and Don’t mind if I do, a conveyor-belt-centered exhibition that prioritizes rest and play. They have done projects with MUDAM Luxembourg, the Queens Museum, moCa Cleveland, the High Line, MMK Frankfurt, MCA Denver, and Nook Gallery. Their work has been supported by a Wynn Newhouse Award, an Eyebeam fellowship, a Disability Futures Fellowship, and grants from Art Matters Foundation, Canada Council for the Arts, and the Disability Visibility Project. Their work has been written about in Art in America, BOMB Magazine, the Believer, and Out Magazine. They live and work in Brooklyn, NY.
Moderated by Aubree Penney, Monument Lab Senior Project Manager and Curatorial Associate.
Accessibility Information
- This session is being recorded and will be available online within 24 hours of the workshop. Attendees are welcome to turn their cameras off for privacy or restfulness.
- Please keep cameras stable and turn them off while moving to accommodate participants with chronic dizziness.
- Engage in ways that are comfortable for you, including taking breaks or eating and drinking as needed.
- Automated captioning will be available throughout the session.
- Sound will be described in the chat.
- Presenters will briefly describe themselves and any visuals used during their presentation.
- Should you have any additional accessibility needs or suggestions, please contact Aubree Penney ([email protected]).
Credits
Curator: Aubree Penney
Presenters: alexa dexa, Johanna Hedva, Finnegan Shannon
Designer: Jonai Gibson Selix
Tech: Cleary Rubinos
Monument Lab Team: Paul Farber, Bella Rodriguez, Dina Paola Rodriguez, Nico Rodriguez, and Yolanda Wisher
Monument Lab Board of Directors: Lola Bakare (Secretary), Ellery Roberts Biddle, Amari Johnson, Monica O. Montgomery (Vice Chair), Stephan Nicoleau (Treasurer), Michelle Angela Ortiz, Samala, Kirk Savage, and Tiffany Tavarez (Chair)
Major support for Monument Lab’s Public Workshop Series is provided by the Mellon Foundation.