We cannot \u201cconceive of a future without the figure of the Child.”^{1<\/sup><\/a><\/span>} 1 <\/a> - Lee Edelman, No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive<\/em> (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004): 11.<\/span> As feminist author Alison Kafer tells us, futurity happens to be normatively deployed only when it serves able-bodiedness and able-mindedness.^{2<\/sup><\/a><\/span>} 2 <\/a> - Alison Kafer, Feminist, Queer, Crip<\/em> (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2013).<\/span> If we recognize that futurity is customarily claimed by able-bodied people, the work by artist and disability activist Shannon Finnegan becomes significant in contrast, as she expresses theories of time and possible futures for persons with disabilities. By firmly grounding the concepts of \u201cdisabled temporality\u201d and \u201ccrip time,\u201d Finnegan\u2019s Anti-Stairs Club Lounge at \u201cVessel,\u201d<\/em> Anti-Stairs Club Lounge at Wassaic Project,<\/em> and Do you want us here<\/em> or not, informally referred to as Museum Benches<\/em>, require that we consider how a different future is possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The breakdown of futures in which disabled people exist stems from two related failures: disability is regarded only as something inherently incompatible with the future, and at the same time it is fixed, immovable, and unquestionable, not something to be discussed and understood. These failures stem from the notion that disability is ultimately an objective phenomenon that cannot be argued with or reasoned about, let alone deployed in a manner that meaningfully alters society. The contradiction between disability and the future is taken to be self-evident. If we acknowledge that futurity is habitually reserved for able-bodied people, we can start to productively imagine chronologies that do not deny the plurality of human experiences. As Judith Butler advances, changing how we think allows us to change our situations. Thus, what Butler calls fantasy brings forth a \u201ccritical promise, allowing us to imagine ourselves and others otherwise.”^{3<\/sup><\/a><\/span>} 3 <\/a> - Judith Butler, Undoing Gender<\/em> (New York: Routledge, 2004): 29.<\/span> Outside of the traditional schemas of critical utopianism, it would seem \u201centirely possible that imagining different futures and temporalities might help us see, and do the present differently.”^{4<\/sup><\/a><\/span>} 4 <\/a> - Kafer, Feminist, Queer, Crip<\/em>, 28.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Finnegan\u2019s work, this critical promise is rendered concrete. Anti-Stairs Club Lounge <\/em>et Museum Benches<\/em>. Finnegan\u2019s Anti-Stairs Club Lounge series and Museum Benches are both aesthetic and performative. These works disrupt the ableist architectural reverence of stairs and provoke spectators to view the seemingly banal event of sitting as a political posture. Finnegan writes, \u201cI\u2019ve been focused on making work for a disabled audience. We are funny, vibrant, and nuanced. Mainstream culture never treats us that way or shows us a real vision of ourselves. We have to do that for each other”.^{5<\/sup><\/a><\/span>} 5 <\/a> - Email correspondence with Shannon Finnegan, March 26, 2020.<\/span> Drawing on the rights-based equality model of the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), she opens up a structure of transformative justice and wholeness for all persons and communities with disabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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