Even a dead cat bounces when dropped from a great height. This rather macabre observation is viewed as hopeful by those pulling the strings of global finance. It serves as a portent of calm waters after the storm, solemnity after the sundering of the earth. The end of the catastrophe. At a time of billion-pound black holes and redefinitions of “working people,” it is fitting that Arts Catalyst is hosting Dead Cat Bounce by Gary Zhexi Zhang and Waste Paper Opera – a one-off oratorio performance during October's No Bounds Festival, followed by an exhibition on at Soft Ground until 14 December.
On first entering the gallery at Soft Ground, the vast figure of a catfish deity – known as Namazu – greets me with toothsome smile, dark robes and absent eyes. It serves as a gatekeeper and guide through the exhibition, which is set out in a scholarly museum-like arrangement of slides, shelves and props from the earlier performance of the operatic oratorio. Excerpts of the performance fill the space – some a biblical lament, others a studious lecture on the nesting dolls of failed assassination attempts. My favourite piece of music comes in the form of a comically tragic 80s estate agent selling a beach view apartment that is under water. Each carefully arranged object and voice acts as a relic to a past, present or future cataclysm.
Equally as sinister are the three day-glo orange scaffolds supporting neon circles and a precariously arranged triangle. The shapes are poised temptingly aloft; glamorous guillotines of blades, crashes and loops. The cycles of capitalism writ large and as imposing as a macabre grotesquerie of everyday expense. The mortgage is, after all, a death pledge.
But the final piece of absurdity? A vast catfish inflating and deflating in an endless futile cycle. Its form imposing and dominating the space. Close by are a pair of lilac wellingtons. They are illuminated imposingly with the reverence of a religious icon.
