Finnegan Shannon is an artist whose mischievous works challenge traditional museum practices and etiquette. For Don’t mind if i do, Shannon brings alive their longtime fantasy for an exhibition that meets their access needs. “I’m disabled,” they say, “and I need to sit. I’ve been dreaming about an exhibition where instead of having to move from artwork to artwork, I could sit somewhere comfortable and have the artwork come to me.”

Don’t mind if i do is a collaborative experiment demonstrating how temporary changes in power structures create pathways of access for visitors, artists, and staff. Anchored by a conveyor belt that brings artworks to visitors who are invited to sit around comfortable furniture and engage with the objects, the exhibition features artworks by several artists who have influenced Shannon’s practice. The paraded objects, including plastic pill bottles, tissue box covers, and gender-affirming packers, signify illness, systems of support, and play within everyday life. 

Embraced for its efficiency and mechanized transport of goods, the conveyor belt is reappropriated as a vehicle for cultivating a more relaxed museum-going experience. It welcomes informality, messiness, and unsettling the hierarchy of objects. For the exhibition’s Chicago iteration, Shannon also presents If you consider yourself good at cornhole, this isn’t for you, an interactive work that invites visitors to play the game of cornhole.

Support for Don’t mind if i do is provided by the Illinois Arts Council and the School of Art & Art History, the College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts, and the University of Illinois Chicago. 

Don’t mind if i do originated at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, where it was on view July  7, 2023–January 7, 2024, with generous support provided by the Ford Foundation.