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Cat Mac

@musebloom.bsky.social

198 followers 413 following 71 posts

Exhibitions Manager in London, UK Views own | she-they | ♿️🦿🌱🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 I am musebloom everywhere

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Cat Mac @musebloom.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

Long live the Prince Charles Cinema

A white left hand holds up a small pin badge that says “I heart PCC” in front of the Prince Charles cinema in London. The cinema has above its doors an illuminated sign that says “damn the man, save the PCC” in all caps.

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Cat Mac @musebloom.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face, Great Chieftain o’ the Puddin-race! Palestinian poetry to accompany our celebration of the bard. Happy Burns Night 🥃🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿📖

Burns Supper. A small table with two plates, each with mashed potatoes and neeps. Between the two plates is another smaller plate with a sliced haggis. There is also a small jug of whisky cream sauce, a bottle of whisky and two glasses with whisky. In the background there are two poetry books propped against a radio. One is Victims of a Map and the other is Rifqa.

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Cat Mac @musebloom.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

I’ll end with one last passage.

Photograph of a page from Raicovich’s 2021 book, Culture Strike. The text reads:

The breath of life, then, no matter where we live or how, is undoubtedly what connects us, and the pandemic allows us to see how the necessity of breath makes us interdependent. My exhale becomes your inhale and vice versa. And yet all breath and all life does not matter equally on this planet. And society reflects this reality, including cultural spaces and museums.
Given the access and power I have within the cultural realm, this is my chosen space to make change, with the hope that these efforts not only take root, but that they also might provide a model for the ways in which such change can occur on broader societal scales.

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Cat Mac @musebloom.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Finally got around to finishing Laura Raicovich’s Culture Strike from 2021. Struck by nearly every word, but especially resonant with me at this time of spinning plates and competing deadlines was this passage.

Photograph of a page from Raicovich’s 2021 book, Culture Strike. The text reads:

From an institutional perspective, I firmly believe that the single most important and impactful way to make changes is to radically slow down. The pace of cultural production is simply too fast. We have to ask ourselves: How many exhibitions are truly necessary or even desirable in a single year? How many public programs? More is sometimes just more, and not better.
Already-thin human resources are stretched beyond their capacities to function at the speed with which cultural organizations install new exhibitions, invent new projects and plan events, talks, performances, and so on. How do we do all of these things better? Not just faster, not just more, but better and deeper?

Slowing down is crucial because it allows us to take more time to make important decisions. In so doing, we engage more people in the process: it allows us to liaise with more staff members, talk to additional stakeholders, do more of the work that would make cultural space more inclusive.

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Cat Mac @musebloom.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

A calm Yule to all, happy solstice. A time for light, and cleaning.

A black and white graded photograph. A table with a cotton placemat, on which has been placed two tall white candles on black candleholders, and a tea light in a small round glass holder. The candles are alight. In front of the tall candles is a small metal incense burner with star shaped holes. Smoke rises from the burner and curls around the tall candles.

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Cat Mac @musebloom.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

I have been sad and missing fluffy things since Mollie so we went to a cat cafe near Archway. It was wonderful and I strongly recommend.

A fluffy white and grey-brown Maine Coon cat curled up asleep on a brown leather chair.

A small black and white tuxedo kitten on a table investigating glasses and plates after a meal.

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Cat Mac @musebloom.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

One of my local bookshops does ‘blind date with a book’ and they have recently started to include non-fiction. I’d say place your bets, but might be a bit niche.

A paperback book is wrapped in matt black paper and tied with black twine. On the front is a black sticker with white writing indicating the themes of the book: non-fiction, past to present, curses and charms, worldly scope, hocus pocus. Attached to the black twine is a white label like a gift tag. On there in black writing it says “Blind Date with Reality” and “non-fiction”. There is a tiny sticker of a ladybird in the bottom right corner. The parcel exudes an air of mystery!

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Cat Mac @musebloom.bsky.social · 07/10/2023

In general, a good week was had.

Pictured are two programmes placed on a white sofa. On the left is one for the opera Peter Grimes, performed at the ENO this week. On the cover is a man cornered on the edge of a pier by a looming faceless crowd. The sky is dark and foreboding. On the right is one for the Marina Abramović Institute takeover of the Southbank Centre this week. It is grey with the title in red bold text.

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Cat Mac @musebloom.bsky.social · 06/10/2023

The Marina Abramović Institute takeover at the Southbank Centre was certainly interesting. I think the most successful works were those where the space was an actor in the performance. I loved the Miles Greenberg, of course, oh and activating BoH spaces! More of this please.

Nobody by Carlos Martiel. In this work, a platform has been build in the middle of the auditorium seating in the Queen Elizabeth Hall. On top of this platform a black man is tied to a flagpole with thick rope. A British flag flies from the top of the flagpole. Strong lighting casts multiple shadows of the flag around the hall. The work refers to historical oppression, racism, and systemic violence.

Water in a Heatwave by Miles Greenberg. Five pairs of black men with diverse body types stand on top of mirrored cubes which are sitting on a mirrored floor. They are all shirtless, and all wearing light beige trousers with no shoes. They are in a variety of positions, but all are grasping their cube-mate in a form of embrace. They are performing a durational performance piece.

Our Glorious Past, Our Glorious Present, Our Glorious Future: Our Glorious Spring, by Collective Absentia. A man sits on a chair alone with a black bag over his head. The chair is positioned on a square piece of white flooring and illuminated from above by a spotlight. The man sits still like a statue, with his hands placed on his thighs. The chair is situated within the foyer of Queen Elizabeth Hall. This durational piece mediates on non-violent acts of resistance in the political context of Myanmar.

A Key by Yiannis Pappas. A Man dressed in a grey long-sleeved denim shirt and matching jeans sits on the floor of a Perspex box. Around him lie the remains of walls that he has broken through as part of his durational performance. Within his Perspex box lie remnants of drinks and snacks and it is unclear whether the audience have posted these through to him or if they were already in the box as part of the piece. The artist will progress through six walls over five days, eventually reaching the end with a lock.

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Cat Mac @musebloom.bsky.social · 05/10/2023

Opening on Tues 10 Oct at the Jeu de Paume, Julia Margaret Cameron: Arresting Beauty. It’s the first large-scale retrospective dedicated to the artist in Paris, and contains 95 original works from the V&A. For me, it’s show no.3 in country no.3 all opening within 10 days of each other!

A poster for the upcoming Julia Margaret Cameron exhibition, opening at Jeu de Paume in Paris on Tuesday 10 October 2023. The exhibition is open until 28 January 2024. The central image on the poster is a sepia photograph of a young girl wearing angel wings, staring directly at the viewer. The photograph is by Cameron from 1872, and is titled ‘I Wait’.

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Cat Mac @musebloom.bsky.social · 29/09/2023

Not so humble brag but my first temporary exhibition project in the museum has got 5 stars ⭐️ www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

A screenshot of the Guardian website showing Charlotte Jansen’s five star review for the Prix Pictet Human exhibition at the V&A. Featured is a photo by Gauri Gill, winner of the prize. The subheading reads: an exhilarating, scary photographic journey.

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Cat Mac @musebloom.bsky.social · 27/09/2023

Opening on Sunday (in Shanghai), Horst: Photographer of Style!

The exterior of a shopping mall is pictured with three large vertical posters for the upcoming Horst exhibition. Underneath the three posters is a large horizontal banner, also advertising the Horst exhibition. The photo is taken from across the street. Directly in front of the person taking the photo are some colourful mopeds/scooters. the street is empty and has some thin green trees on the other side, in front of the mall entrance.

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Cat Mac @musebloom.bsky.social · 27/09/2023

Opening on Friday... Prix Pictet 2023!

A large hanging wooden sign reading 'HUMAN' can be seen suspended between two marble columns. This sign forms the entrance to the new Prix Pictet exhibition at the V&A in South Kensington, opening to the public this Friday.

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Cat Mac @musebloom.bsky.social · 23/09/2023

Meanwhile in Shanghai… another of my projects (also opening end of next week). Horst: Photographer of Style in collaboration with Meta Media Group is at Taikoo Li Qiantan on Dongyu Road from 30 Sept to 19 Nov 2023.

A photo of an advertisement screen in Shanghai, China, showing a poster for the upcoming V&A Horst exhibition. The poster utilises a colour fashion photo by Horst with a model facing away from the camera, wearing haute couture, posing next to a lime green velvet chair.

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Cat Mac @musebloom.bsky.social · 21/09/2023

Mollie always and forever 👑 This photo is from 9 years ago and Mollie hasn’t aged a day 🐱

A femme presenting person with dark hair is tucked in bed with their eyes closed. Snuggled up to their face is a small tortoiseshell colour Burmese cat who also has her eyes closed.

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