Is This the End?

“It’s easier to imagine an end to the world than an end to capitalism.” – Fredric Jameson

Is This the End? is a humorous performance lecture about apocalyptic thinking. It strings together an impossible litany of decontextualised finales and climaxes from famous pieces of classical music, using these to ask: what tells us that the end is nigh? How does it feel when the ultimate ending is on its way? Through discussion of musical snippets and self-reflexive observations about the progress of the performance itself, the performance brings a critical eye to the dangers of apocalyptic approaches to our political present.

This project is part of Vitals’ URGE Development Progam.

URGE is a development stream supporting artists and projects from early ideas through to presentation-ready performance, with developments, residencies, workshops and laboratories taking place both locally and in partnerships across the country.

About the Artist

Catherine Ryan

Catherine is an artist who makes video and sound work and performance lectures. She has exhibited at and performed in exhibitions and festivals across Australia and in Europe. Her recent works examine how the imperative to be productive structures the experience of time under neoliberalism, as well as ways that concepts from musicology can provide fresh insights into the ecological crisis. Catherine has presented at galleries and public spaces across Australia and internationally, including at Performance Space (Sydney), Monash University Museum of Art (Melbourne), the Museum für Neue Kunst (Freiburg, Germany), MONA FOMA festival (Hobart), the Royal College of Art (London) and the 2015 Vienna Biennale (Austria). Her writing has been published in Disclaimer and Meanjin. She has also developed and performed in collaborative experimental performance pieces with live art collectives including Field Theory (Icon, 2018) and APHIDS (GUTFUL, 2023; Contentious Buffet, 2022; Questions for Problems, 2018). Between 2012 and 2016, Catherine collaborated with artist Amy Spiers to make a series of performance artworks about the increased securitisation and policing of public space.

Men Play

After 100 years of tradition in Australia, a once popular sport played exclusively by men and boys is about to become extinct. Over a series of meetings, a committee of dedicated players scramble to save their sport in the wake of institutional crisis and social change.

See project

About the Artist

Other Projects

Men Play

Evil Hour

Ride Or Die