Recent Works
Wormhole of Our Formation pilot
Curated by Bean At UCA, Canterbury Oct 15th- Nov 18th 2023
Originally conceived as a live performance it is a multi-faceted work, consisting of an immersive exhibition with broken down cars, photographs, participation and four 360 film VR episodes.
Photographs: Produced in collaboration with Helen Davison and printed by Russell Alderton.
Lighting: Design & installation: Marty Langthorne
Pearled neck brace and dress by Lara Buffard.
Installation & Fabrication: Isabel Ferreira Install Assistance: Martin Robinson Production Assistance & invigilation: Molly, Florian, Beth, Sam & Erin
360 VR film episodes:
Written, directed and performed: Catherine Hoffmann
Film Editing: Manuel Vason
Recording engineer & Spatial audio editing & mixing: Lottie Poulet Costume: Lara Buffard
Finale song ‘Looking for the Rain’: written by James Gabriel, Leo Lavelle, Jack Leonard, Mark Lanegan, Matthew Puffet.
Vocals: Catherine Hoffmann
A bleeding and spewing On the Road…
‘No sweeteners offered. This is how it is. No relief.’
Relief when it finally comes is like a panicked intake of breath. Fizzing and jerking, long haired, in crimson tassels, Hoffmann is a hand extended into the depths. A ritual, an ordeal, an exorcism of the malevolent forces of austerity, complacency, and greed.’
Diarmuid Hester, academic and writer
Endorsements:
WORMHOLE OF OUR FORMATION reflects on multiple layers of perma-crises and how our fragile bodies and minds somehow work their way through them. The 4 sequential VR films can't be conveyed in this medium but you get a taste of the installation, which includes breakfast and tea making facilities (thanks). I can't remember another woman artist who's used rusty car parts so eloquently in an installation before! Sadly, today is the last day of this iteration but I look forward to seeing what happens next with this exciting material. Blown away.
Dr Alexandra Kokoli, Writer, Professor and head of Fine Art Middlesex University.
Wormhole was a wonder. Immersive and compelling with the olfactory senses engaged in an original and reassuring way. Nothing shouts contentment better than the smell of warm toast and yet there was so much more at play within the car carnage and the longer one spent within the installation the more one wondered....
Andrew Kotting Artist and film maker, lecturer UCA
An absolutely brilliant show. So generous in medium. So genius in how each medium communicates to a different aspect of our human condition. I love the tenderness with which it uses humour, chaos, hospitality, the ordinary, and stream of consciousness, to tell the story of our often troubled minds. It drew me in visually from the minute I walked in the door and left me thinking about it for a long time afterwards.
Jasbir Dhillon, Curator
Catherine is a visionary, pushing multi-disciplinary practice to an immersive new scale. Taking relentless risks in making and in the true sense of artistic experimentation. The political message in the work is lived and not a fleeting nod to issues of mental health and poverty.
The colourful flare of Wormhole of our Formation uses rusty cars and sequinned costume with tassels and golden locks whipping into a storm with great abandon, through humour, skilful writing and character studies in photographic prints, VR headsets, installation objects and a nice cuppa tea too. As I always say - YOU ARE A GENIUS
Florence Peake, Artist
Supported by: Screen South, Arts council England, UCA Canterbury, Wysing arts Centre, Cambridge Junction.
Cyst-er Act
Image by Holly Revell
Her material is raw and her relay of it feels vital and clandestine.
Exuent
Farcically serious, the work considers very real questions about women's health and how to integrate mainstream science with holistic medicine.
Total Theatre
Hoffmann's irreverent humour works well as a juxtaposition to the pain, shame and embarrassment that women still are expected to put up with.
The Stage
A messy, musical ritual - Madame Ovary meets The Devils - probing into reproductive mishaps and monstrosities.
What is it like to have your fallopian tube hacked off? Or to give birth to a 10lb cyst baby? The realm of the womb can be complex and bloody awesome…
Cyst-er Act is a new work written about Cath’s personal experience of having an ovary removed due to a large cyst that took over her entire stomach, and the discoveries of other women's womb difficulties. It uncovers lost knowledge about women's bodies and how these interior things occur through ovary blues, punk, death metal and some gospel numbers thrown in.
Joined on stage by her 'Poly-Cysters', Sarahjane Grimshaw and Amanda Radix, expect songs, slime, speculums and stripteasing nuns – Welcome to the wonders of the womb.
Originally shown at Ovalhouse and the Southbank centre. Supported by Arts Council England, Metal and Ovalhouse.
Creative team
Concept, writing and performance Catherine Hoffmann
Performers Sarah Jane Grimshaw and Amanda Radix
Direction and dramaturgy of initial R+D phase Jan Van den Bosch Witch doctor Tom Marshman
Choreographic assistance Florence Peake
Outside eyes Louise Mothersole, Madeleine Hodge
Lighting Designer Marty Langthorne
Costume Designer of habits and wimples Jack Goode
Producer Laura Sweeney
Engagement Producer Siobhan McGrath
Photography Holly Revell and Manuel Vason
DATES:
Feb 2020
13-25th August 2019
Edinburgh Fringe Fest
Summerhall
Wednesday 17th April 2019
Colchester Arts Centre
Wednesday 10th April 2019
Norwich Arts Centre
Wednesday 3rd April 2019
Artsadmin London
Saturday 16th March 2019
POW! Festival
Turner Contemporary Margate
Sunday 10th March 2019
Quarterhouse Folkestone
Thursday 9th Sep 2018
The Space in Between, Unlimited festival
Southbank centre
7-9th June 2018
Ovalhouse Theatre
Jan 28, 29 2022
Gender Medicine festival
Kampnagel, Hamburg
Women Working Class
Lead artist and organisational support for the resource website Women Working Class
History
Desperate to connect with other Working Class Artists in a room, Fox Irving came up with the idea of a ‘working class working group’. Meeting with artists Kelly Green and Catherine Hoffmann, conversations identified that there wasn’t really a space for working class women artists or producers to come together.
The idea is not for a group to come together to talk about class, but to imagine/practice ways for art spaces to better serve class diverse artists doing ground breaking, system changing work; discuss how issues of class influence what we make; and explore what our relationships are to just being and surviving in the art world and how it can liberate us to do the radical.
The Live Art Development Agency offered their resource room for women working class gatherings to meet and Fox applied for a project grant from the Arts Council – In December 2019, an open call was put out for the founding members of the group. It was at our first gathering of the Women Working Class Group that we started to create resources for working class artists and producers originally meant as a zine but due to the pandemic it moved online. Could we adapt it to survive the pandemic and the crisis within the arts? The founding group is now coming out the other side of the pandemic and have been busy making resources, provocations, podcasts and art for : www.womenworkingclass.com
Supported by Arts council England, Heart of Glass and Live Art development Agency
Free lunch with the StenchWench
‘A cross between performance art, stand-up, a gig and a call to arms.
A humorous and truly compelling performance.’
Desperate Optimists
‘Catherine Hoffmann's StenchWench is a labour of love and hits a home run for the proletariat! If you like your shows raw, real and dipping with beauty, go see this one. It will not disappoint.’
Stacy Makishi
‘At once funny, touching and full of sadness, StenchWench focuses on a harsh hidden upbringing in the UK, marked out by class and abject poverty. Cath takes us on a journey through some very personal experiences in her childhood struggle for survival and the lengths society makes us go to appear ‘normal’.’
Gill Lloyd, Co-Director Artsadmin
A solo show exploring the personal and shared experiences of growing up as one of the ‘feral underclass’ in relation to today’s ‘Austerity Britain’. Fleas, cheap clothes, thrifty bread, cold baths, and debauched disadvantaged dancing will be unleashed as I chart the drive for survival and fitting in.
Stories and songs about how to get by will be shared whilst I attempt to overcome the shame of bareness and celebrate our spirit of community and hope.
A one woman flea circus doled up with faded glory, austerity pants, mouldy scones and hot chocolate.
Supported by The Arts council England, The Bike shed, Kingsley hall
A development following on from showings at Domestic Festival, Salford, presented by Word of Warning and The Guinness Partnership.
Toured UK Theatres and art centres throughout 2017/18 including:
Toynbee studios, Artsadmin
Beyond Bloodlines festival at The Cockpit
MAC, Birmingham
'Common' festival at CPT,
Norwich arts centre,
Colchester arts centre
Buzzcut, Glasgow
Stephen Lawrence gallery, Greenwich
Live Art Bistro, Leeds
Wardrobe Theatre, Bristol
Creative Team
Written and performed by Catherine Hoffmann
Producer: Laura Sweeney
Lighting Designer: Marty Langthorne
Press and PR: Anna Goodman, Abstrakt PR
Production: Malachy Orozco
Outside eyes: Florence Peake, Dickie Beau, Katy Baird
Photography: Lesley Ewen, Richard Davenport
Filmed by Tim Newton
Interviews and articles about Free Lunch with the StenchWench:
For Hypatia journal for feminist philosophy 'Gender and the politics of shame'
By Dr. Alexandra Kokoli, Toward a Synaesthetics of Poverty and Shame in Catherine Hoffmann's Performance.
Interview in The Guardian with Nell Frizell:
Article written for Exeunt - 'Where are the voices exploring working class experiences in the arts?'
Blog written for Big Issue North:
Interview with Kelly green for LADA's study room guide
-Let's get Classy - Live art, class and cultural privilege
Ten tips on being feckless and poor for LADA toolkit series - Ways of getting classy
Whatever Happened to The Glory Days?
As part of Love Letters to a (post) Europe event and book 2018
Toynbee studios, London,
Edge Hill Arts centre, Ormskirk,
Performance Space, Folkestone
GISWIL Performance Art festival , Switzerland, 2019
Making an Exit festival, Chisenhale, London, 2019
Bios, Athens, October 2016
Book published by LADA and Unbound.
With texts from Whatever happened to the Glory days:
A curated event of short works performed in the context of a rapidly changing Europe.
Other Participating artists:
Friday 2 October
Kate Adams (UK), Demosthenes Agrafiotis (GR), Brian Catling & David Tolley (UK), Tim Etchells (UK), Alec Finlay (UK) performance: Haris Attonis, Wendy Houstoun (UK), Brian Lobel (USA/UK), Georgios Makkas (GR), Kira O’Reilly (IR/UK) performance: Vassiliki Dimou, Erica Scourti (UK/GR), Maria Sideri (GR), Jungmin Song (KR), Yoko Tawada (JP/DE)
Saturday 3 October
cris cheek (UK), Robin Deacon (UK/USA), Matthew Goulish (USA) performance: Evdokia Delipetrou, Guy Harries (UK), Steven C Harvey (UK), Georgios Makkas (GR), Mikhail Karikis (GR/UK), Claire MacDonald (UK), performance: Evangeli Fili, Ivana Müller (HR/FR), Mariela Nestora (GR) and group, Florence Peake (UK), Anna Sherbany (UK), Nikki Tomlinson (UK)
Levelled at this crisis of social imagination, economic dogmatism and neoliberal tyranny is imagination, empathy, sensuality, presence, being together, singular witnessing, living manifestos, stories, acts of friendship, fellowship, solidarity, refusals of order, nonsense, gifting, calls from and to the wilderness, rants, tough love, seductions, messages in brokenness, adoration, utopias and post-utopias, songs from the margins, addressing the now.
Concept and curation: Lisa Alexander
Production: Lisa Alexander & BIOS