“In the novel Year of Wonders, author Geraldine Brooks wrote a historical fiction inspired by the 1666 pandemic plague in England, which required a small Derbyshire village to quarantine itself in order to keep the community spread of illness from reaching beyond its borders. Brooks’ background as a journalist in Australia grounds the extensive research behind the story and allows her to depict the journey of a young woman grappling with a new world of loss, and observing her community dwindle under forced isolation.

…Elana Mann’s Year of Wonders, redux reflects in a visual and sonic way, ethnographic views or field notes into a world that is in a state of great uncertainty, and describes the civil and social unrest that is informed by a global pandemic, racial injustice, and a presidential election that appeared to completely divide the United States…

As an artist who explores the listening and speaking practiced within everyday life, Elana Mann’s work not only bridges sculpture, performance, community engagement, and politics, but is the perfect case study to investigate the political nuances that continue to shape the world during the year 2020 and beyond. Mann’s sculpturally, sonic works captured the words, sounds, and experiences of activism through the making of ceramic and fiberglass instruments. While Mann typically displays these sound sculptures in collaboration with musical artists, the global pandemic presented a peculiar change for artists like Mann whose artistic practices lean towards social engagement that activates and brings life to her sculptures… Nonetheless, Elana Mann’s Year of Wonders, redux seeks to explore the complicated process of documenting what the art and sound of global unrest, isolation, and abandonment looks like in such a challenging year like 2020-2021…

Elana Mann’s Year of Wonders, redux presents new questions and solutions for art in the years to come that we can all learn and grow from. For obvious reasons, 'Our work is never done' presented for Mann the greatest dilemma of considering how very rarely artists have to question human liability in their work. With the exception of the safety protocols inherent within art-making due to air quality, chemicals, and equipment, much of the visitor’s experience with art objects is left to chance. In this way, much of our conversations about social responsibility within art has been limited to context, interpretation, or the risk that humans and the environment place on artworks. For Mann’s Year of Wonders, redux exhibition, it becomes clear that the year 2020 has presented us with radical opportunities in the field. By turning th­e experience of art on its head, we are challenged to examine not only risks as a result of the pandemic, but also how social transformation might be reimagined under a new world order: one where social and cultural welfare and the lives of others become our highest priority.”

--Excerpts from “The Sound(s) of Unrest: A Glimpse of Protest in Elana Mann’s Year of Wonders,” by Lauren Cross Ph.D., originally commissioned and produced by Artpace San Antonio