Perspective
(2020-present)
Ongoing interview project featuring voices and viewpoints of disabled interviewees
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Perspective is an ongoing project featuring disabled interviewees responding to what access, care, interdependence, and more mean to them. The project stemmed from a conversation with disability activist Judith Heumann, who asked why I refer to my left hand as “weak.” I have an impaired left hand from a previous car accident, and this question motivated rethinking weakness and further terms, asking what these terms mean to interviewees across a range of disabilities, experiences, and more.
The interviewees' responses are featured aurally (voices overheard and musical accompaniment) and visually (open-caption videos) to underscore accessibility and multiple sensory inputs to the work. The project has seen multiple formats, ranging from in-person installation, dance performance, to virtual and interactive talkbacks. Past presenters include Americans for the Arts, Hirshhorn Museum, Bemis Center, The Great Northern Festival, Halcyon, The Peace Studio, Gaudeamus Muziekweek, Surel’s Place, and National Sawdust. The project was released as an album in October 2022 on New Amsterdam Records, in celebration of Disability Employment Awareness Month. It was praised by Pitchfork as “a powerful work of love and empathy that underscores the poison of ableism in American culture.”
Presentation Formats
Installation
Audio-visual installation, featuring musical content + video projection.
image description: Screenshot from Zoom talk with Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, with project curator Sandy Guttman.
Talkback
Discussing project questions and relevance to disabled and nondisabled communities.
image description: excerpts from performance at The Momentary in Bentonville, AR as part of the 2021 INVERSE Performance Art Symposium. Video by Edward C. Robinson.
Interactive
Polling audiences on project concepts such as “What is care for you?” and more.
image description: Screenshot from performance at Eighth Blackbird’s Chicago Artists Workshop.
Performance
Performing on voice, toy organ, and electronics with accompanying interviewee voices and video.
Events:
November 13, 2023
Refuge Worldwide
Workshop on selections from Perspective, asking what is care, interdependence, and more to workshop participants. Hosted online by Refuge Worldwide.
November 9 - December 31, 2023
New Bedford Art Museum
Perspective showing as part of Gateways to Awareness exhibition, including new videos with American Sign Language (ASL) by Pro Bono ASL, at the New Bedford Art Museum in New Bedford, MA.
May 6 - August 20, 2023
Tang Teaching Museum: Elevator Music 46: Molly Joyce—Perspective
Elevator Music 46: Molly Joyce—Perspective invites visitors to explore contemporary disability experiences through audio interviews with disabled participants layered with an emotionally resonant score. This multisensory installation presents four tracks from Joyce’s recently released 12-track album Perspective, accompanied by an open-captioned video, and a bench with vibrotactile devices that enable visitors to physically engage with the aural components of the work.
January 27, 2023
New Amsterdam Records: EP Release
On January 27, 2023, Molly Joyce, an artist motivated by and through and because of disability, releases Open Arms, the companion EP to her new critically acclaimed album, Perspective.
October 28, 2022
New Amsterdam Records: Album Release
On October 28, 2022, Molly Joyce, an artist motivated by and through and because of disability, an artist with “serene power” (The New York Times)—one of the “most versatile, prolific, and intriguing composers working under the vast new-music dome” (The Washington Post)—releases her new work, Perspective, on New Amsterdam Records. On Perspective, Joyce moves beyond her own disability to highlight voices of the wider disabled community—both literally and figuratively.
June 22, 2022
Screen Dive
Interactive online presentation with Screen Dive (Netherlands).
June 14, 2022
National Sawdust: The Future Is… Creative Forum
Interactive presentation at National Sawdust’s The Future Is… Creative Forum in Brooklyn, NY.
June 11, 2022
Open Arms Dance Project
Open Arms Dance Project performs selections from Perspective as part of Dance Boise at the Morrison Center in Boise, ID.
April 28, 2022
Open Arms Dance Project
Open Arms Dance Project performs selections from Perspective at the Morrison Center in Boise, ID.
January 28 - April 1, 2022
Weber State University
Part of group exhibition All Together, Amongst Many: Reflections on Empathy, exploring the cultural and sociopolitical issues currently defining the United States.
Curated by Rachel Adams, Bemis Chief Curator and Director of Programs.
January 28 - February 6, 2022
The Great Northern Festival
New iteration of Perspective as part of The Great Northern Festival in St. Paul, MN.
Featuring the Twin Cities' multifaceted disability community and a winter iteration of the project—exploring concepts of darkness, resilience, isolation, connection, and more. Interviewees include legendary disability activists local to the area: musician Gaelynn Lea; storyteller Kevin Kling; yoga teacher Matthew Sanford; and connections with local disability groups the Self-Advocacy Advisory Committee of The Arc, Dreamland Arts, and Interact Center.
December 12, 2021
The Momentary
Interactive performance as part of the INVERSE 2021 Cohort Symposium, featuring live poll responses from the audience that are projected visually and spoken aloud via a screen reader.
September 16, 2021
Open Arms Dance Project - Mayor’s Appreciation Day for Arts, History, & Culture
Open Arms Dance Project performs a new iteration of Perspective, featuring interviews with disabled dancers from Open Arms, originally developed with an artist residency at Surel’s Place and now performed at the Boise Mayor’s Appreciation Day for Arts, History, & Culture.
August 26, 2021
Surel’s Place
Premiere of new iteration created with Open Arms Dance Project, as part of residency at Surel’s Place.
June 5 - September 19, 2021
Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts
Part of group exhibition All Together, Amongst Many: Reflections on Empathy, exploring the cultural and sociopolitical issues currently defining the United States.
Curated by Rachel Adams, Bemis Chief Curator and Director of Programs.
June 2, 2021
Ars Nova
Talk with project curator Sandy Guttman, participants Robin Lynne Marquis, David Furukawa and JJJJJerome Ellis as they share excerpts of the larger work, and offer insight into the creative process.
Part of JJJJJerome Ellis’s Vision Residency with Ars Nova.
December 16, 2020
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Artist Talk focusing on Perspective, with project curator Sandy Guttman.
September 9-13, 2020
Gaudeamus Muzieweek - Screen Dive
Virtual installation of project, including an interactive feedback form for website visitors to submit answers to the project questions.
July 13, 2020
The Peace Studio’s 100 Offerings of Peace
Talk sharing selections from Perspective.
June 23, 2020
Americans for the Arts’s Annual Convention
Talk sharing selections from Perspective.