ENTANGLEMENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE is a transdisciplinary programme exploring queer and trans imaginaries of world-building in response to apocalypse(s).
Grounded in ongoing research, the programme critically reinterprets the idea of apocalypse through queer and trans lenses, actively resisting capitalist and colonial narratives that frame apocalypse as a singular or final event.
Drawing inspiration from Oxana Timofeeva’s concept of apocalypse as a cyclical and continuous condition, this project engages with apocalypse as an ongoing transformative process that shapes collective memory and artistic practices.
Drawing inspiration from Oxana Timofeeva’s concept of apocalypse as a cyclical and continuous condition, this project engages with apocalypse as an ongoing transformative process that shapes collective memory and artistic practices.
Led by independent curators and artists, the programme challenges conventional narratives around ‘the end,’ creating spaces for dialogue, experimentation, and collective expression. The programme imagines exhibition-making as an inclusive and collaborative learning process, working closely with queer communities to build spaces of resistance, care, and speculative creativity.
Through radically intimate and emergent methods, this initiative uses apocalyptic thinking as a means of envisioning alternative and transformative present and future.
Through radically intimate and emergent methods, this initiative uses apocalyptic thinking as a means of envisioning alternative and transformative present and future.
Programme
ENTANGLEMENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE will soft launch this July and August with inaugural performances by:︎︎︎ Catherine Hoffmann (Wormhole Of Our Formation as part of Deptford X) - a vertiginous road trip through collapse, driven by unyielding text, warped music and howling storms. 12th July, VSSL Studio (SE8)
︎︎︎ Keioui Keijaun Thomas (Come Hell Or High Femmes: The Dolls Rise at The Horse Hospital) - a speculative portal into a post-apocalyptic future where only black trans-femmes have survive and are building a new world. 13th August, The Horse Hospital (WC1N)
RSVPs essential - More information available through the links above.
RSVPs essential - More information available through the links above.
‘Wormhole Of Our Formation’ by Catherine Hoffmann. Photographed by Claire Haigh.
‘Come Hell or High Femmes: The Era of the Dolls’ - Fierce Festival, Birmingham, UK, 2024. Photos by Manuel Vason
The continuing programme will unfold over the following six months with a series of exhibitions, public gatherings, workshops, talks, and experimental learning events at VSSL Studio and across community spaces.
FURTHER ARTISTS AND CONTRIBUTORS WILL BE ANNOUNCED SOON...
The programme invites audiences to collectively engage with post-apocalyptic thinking, queer world-building, and trans-led imaginaries that centre care, pleasure, hybridity, and embodied knowledge.
FURTHER ARTISTS AND CONTRIBUTORS WILL BE ANNOUNCED SOON...
The programme invites audiences to collectively engage with post-apocalyptic thinking, queer world-building, and trans-led imaginaries that centre care, pleasure, hybridity, and embodied knowledge.
Credits
ENTANGLEMENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE is co-curated by Mine Kaplangı, Benjamin Sebastian, Joseph Morgan Schofield and Ash McNaughton. The programme is made possible with public funding from the National Lottery and Arts Council England.
Live performance by Catherine Hoffmann
RSVP: 15.00, 17.00 & 19.30, Saturday 12th of July, VSSL StudioDocumentation of Wormhole Of Our Formation by Catherine Hoffmann. Photographed by Claire Haigh.
Part absurdist ritual attempting control, part elemental exorcism, WORMHOLE OF OUR FORMATION is a vertiginous road trip through collapse – mental, environmental, economic – driven by unyielding text through warped music and howling storms.
A raw, hallucinatory performance that tears through the psychic wreckage of Breakdown Britain. This is a ride into the fragmentation of the self as Tetley tea bags pile up and scrambled eggs congeal.
In debt and displaced, Hoffmann charts a personal odyssey across red-alert storm zones, B&Bs, motorway shutdowns, and the disorienting landscapes of austerity and ageing.
A raw, hallucinatory performance that tears through the psychic wreckage of Breakdown Britain. This is a ride into the fragmentation of the self as Tetley tea bags pile up and scrambled eggs congeal.
In debt and displaced, Hoffmann charts a personal odyssey across red-alert storm zones, B&Bs, motorway shutdowns, and the disorienting landscapes of austerity and ageing.
Armed with a wind machine, searing text, sonic chaos and ritual tremors, Hoffmann conjures a storm from the inside out.
No solace. No resolve.
Just ridiculous and horrifying monotony until a fissure – shuddering open – towards possible release.
A fizzing, visceral embodiment of crisis and catharsis, Wormhole persists. It shakes you. Bleeds. Trembles. Collapses. Re-forms.
No solace. No resolve.
Just ridiculous and horrifying monotony until a fissure – shuddering open – towards possible release.
A fizzing, visceral embodiment of crisis and catharsis, Wormhole persists. It shakes you. Bleeds. Trembles. Collapses. Re-forms.
Booking Information
Saturday12th July, 15.00, 17.00 & 19.30 at VSSL Studioduring the opening weekend of Deptford X.
︎︎︎ RSVPs essential - Book tickets HERE
"No sweeteners offered. This is how it is. No relief." - Diarmuid Hester
Created by Catherine Hoffmann
Dramaturg: Eirini Kartsaki
Pearled neck brace and dress by Lara Buffard
Choreographic Support: Florence Peake
Additional Sound Support: Lottie Poulet, Geoffrey Chambers
Lights: Marty Langthorne
Production Assistants: Ash McNaughton, Mine Kaplangi
Looking for the Rain written by James Gabriel Leo Lavelle, Jack Leonard, Mark Lanegan, Matthew Puffet
Vocals: Catherine Hoffmann
Thanks to: Tink Flaherty, Katy Baird, Daniel Oliver, Eve Stainton, Gavin Roberts, Jules Deering, Ella Gamble, Sahara Huang, Tim Spooner, Benjamin Sebastian
Dramaturg: Eirini Kartsaki
Pearled neck brace and dress by Lara Buffard
Choreographic Support: Florence Peake
Additional Sound Support: Lottie Poulet, Geoffrey Chambers
Lights: Marty Langthorne
Production Assistants: Ash McNaughton, Mine Kaplangi
Looking for the Rain written by James Gabriel Leo Lavelle, Jack Leonard, Mark Lanegan, Matthew Puffet
Vocals: Catherine Hoffmann
Thanks to: Tink Flaherty, Katy Baird, Daniel Oliver, Eve Stainton, Gavin Roberts, Jules Deering, Ella Gamble, Sahara Huang, Tim Spooner, Benjamin Sebastian
Documentation of Wormhole Of Our Formation by Catherine Hoffmann. Photographed by Claire Haigh.
Buy Artworks
As compliment to the live iteration of WORMHOLE OF OUR FORMATION, Hoffmann has produced a series of six limited edition, A5 prints - available for purchase throughout the ENTANGLEMENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE programme.
Print 1: ‘Traversable c1 Dive’ by Catherine Hoffmann - Giclée print on matt hahnemühle photorag (308gsm) - Photograph created in collaboration with Helen Davison - H: 15cm x W: 23cm - 1/10 - 2023
Print 2: ‘Non Traversable c2 Stumble’ by Catherine Hoffmann - Giclée print on matt hahnemühle photorag (308gsm) - Photograph created in collaboration with Helen Davison - H: 15cm x W: 23cm - 1/10 - 2023
Print 3: ‘Two-way c3 Plunge’ by Catherine Hoffmann - Giclée print on matt hahnemühle photorag (308gsm) - Photograph created in collaboration with Helen Davison - H: 15cm x W: 23cm - 1/10 - 2023
Print 4: ‘Inter-Universe c4 Tumble’ by Catherine Hoffmann - Giclée print on matt hahnemühle photorag (308gsm) - Photograph created in collaboration with Helen Davison - H: 15cm x W: 23cm - 1/10 - 2023
Print 5: ‘Intra-Universe c5 Drop’ by Catherine Hoffmann - Giclée print on matt hahnemühle photorag (308gsm) - Photograph created in collaboration with Helen Davison - H: 15cm x W: 23cm - 1/10 - 2023
Print 6: ‘One-way c6 Trip’ by Catherine Hoffmann - Giclée print on matt hahnemühle photorag (308gsm) - Photograph created in collaboration with Helen Davison - H: 15cm x W: 23cm - 1/10 - 2023
Prints 1 to 6 (pictured above) are priced at £130 ea. For all sales enquiries please contact the artist directly HERE
About Catherine Hoffmann
Described as an elemental weather system Catherine takes an interdisciplinary approach to her work using text, music, choreography, video and participation - sitting in between live art, cabaret and performance. In a DIY approach and usually with absurdism she tackles personal, autobiographical material to shine a light on social issues.Most of her work could be seen as some kind of humiliating act, revealing aspects such as shame, guilt, poverty, loss, gynaecological and mental health. She ventures into vulnerable terrain using humour and irreverence as a tool, to open up dialogue, embracing the desire for collective healing in our challenging contemporary lives.
Mainly creating solo shows as well as interactive intimate works, she also collaborates with Florence Peake and has shown in festivals, theatres, art galleries, cabaret events, on night buses, in bars and clubs throughout the UK and Europe.
In 2023 she created an immersive version of ‘Wormhole of our Formation’ using VR 360 film at UCA in Canterbury supported by ACE, the Hi3 Network, Wysing Arts centre and Cambridge Junction. In 2022 she toured ‘Cyst-er Act’ to Germany, to Summerhall at the Edinburgh fringe festival and the Southbank centre. In 2017/18 she toured the UK with ‘Free Lunch with the Stench Wench’ – a solo exploring shame in relation to class and poverty. Her texts ‘Whatever happened to the Glory Days’? And ‘Ten tips on being Feckless and Poor..’ are printed by LADA and Unbound books.
www.cathoffmann.com
Credits
WORMHOLE OF OUR FORMATION has been made possible with support from Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge Junction, Arts Council England, Battersea Arts Centre, and Hi3 Network with Screen South. In collaboration with VSSL Studio and Deptford X.
Come Hell or High Femmes: The Era of the Dolls, Fierce Festival, Birmingham, UK, 2024. Photographs by Manuel Vason
In Thomas's new solo project - COME HELL OR HIGH FEMMES: THE DOLLS RISE - a three part film and multimedia performance, Thomas charts a post-apocalyptic geography.
Her world is lush and verdant; the artist, bathed in a sky blue dress of tulle, wanders across babbling brooks, oceans, and atop hills of fertile land.
Thomas imagines a time where the dolls — a word that, loosely, means a trans femmes so flawless and unbound they are no longer considered real — have survived a mass extinction.
Her world is lush and verdant; the artist, bathed in a sky blue dress of tulle, wanders across babbling brooks, oceans, and atop hills of fertile land.
Thomas imagines a time where the dolls — a word that, loosely, means a trans femmes so flawless and unbound they are no longer considered real — have survived a mass extinction.
Why are dolls the only ones left? Perhaps, it is because trans femmes (often, but not always) are forged in nocturnality, where beauty and intelligence must learn to supersede time and space. Thomas reclaims what it means to be black in nature, forging new ways to exist in peace, joy, and healing in relation to the American landscape.
The work moves through sound, light, poetry, dance, and music as forms of resistance and healing. The choreography is based on queering landscapes, camouflage, and metamorphosis as modes of survival and transcendence for queer and trans people.
The work moves through sound, light, poetry, dance, and music as forms of resistance and healing. The choreography is based on queering landscapes, camouflage, and metamorphosis as modes of survival and transcendence for queer and trans people.
Booking Information
Wednesday 13th August, 7pm at the Horse Hospital︎︎︎ RSVPs essential - Book tickets HERE
Set in the year 2666, following a mass extinction of most human life, Come Hell or High Femmes: The Dolls Rise explores - in Thomas’ words - a “postapocalyptic world where black transfemmes have survived and are building a new universe.” - Joshua Chambers
Come Hell or High Femmes: The Era of the Dolls, Fierce Festival, Birmingham, UK, 2024. Photographs by Manuel Vason
About Keioui Keijaun Thomas
Keioui Keijaun Thomas (b.1989) is a New York-based artist. She creates live performance and multimedia installations that address the multifaceted realms of Black identity formation, encompassing affective, material and economic dimensions. Through a captivating fusion of sculpture and performance, the work explores the transient nature of the “doll”— a trans femme so flawless and unbound she is no longer considered real—as both a work in progress and a formidable force of nature.Utilizing an array of materials such as paper, hair, sugar, rubber, tape, acrylic, water, enamel and skin to create tableaus that are intricately intertwined with her own body. Her performances combine rhapsodic layers of live and recorded voice, slipping between various modes of address, to explore the pleasures and pressures of dependency, care, and support. By centering self and communal care in real-time, Thomas’ practice aims to build bridges of understanding and community.
Thomas has presented work both nationally and internationally. She earned her Masters degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her BFA with Honors from the School of Visual Arts in New York.
See more of her recent work HERE
Credits
COME HELL OR HIGH FEMMES: THE DOLLS RISE as part of ENTANGLEMENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE is co-curated by Mine Kaplangı, Benjamin Sebastian, Joseph Morgan Schofield and Ash McNaughton. The programme is made possible with public funding from the National Lottery and Arts Council England.