Look at all these tired horses—audio transcription
Horse hospital
This three-part performance draws influence from Mark Fisher’s Postcapitalist Desire, exploring themes of alienation, collectivity, and the performative anticipation of a radically transformed world.
1. I Rage: Cacophony (KakaPony)
An expression of hyperindividualism and internalised societal rage, this section examines the notion that we are the source of our own suffering—a psychic condition shaped by neoliberal narratives of self-responsibility, isolation, and upward mobility. Suppression is obscured, reframed as individual weakness or failure, rather than the product of structural inequality. Exposing the cracks in this illusion, this section hints at a growing awareness that this suffering is not self-originating, but imposed. The soundtrack is harsh and volatile, layering looped vocals into a raw articulation of suppressed anger, wurld angst, and psychic distortion.
2. Solidarity: Walk Together
A shift towards collective possibility, this section centres on emerging togetherness and shared awareness. Looping coconut shells mimic horse hooves, forming a rhythm for participatory engagement. One member of the collective performs a rendition of The Dead Horse (also known as Poor Old Horse), a maritime shanty sung at the end of a sailor’s first month at sea—when they had worked off their advance wages. The “dead horse” becomes a poignant symbol of exhausted labour and temporal debt, reframed here in the context of late capitalism’s psychic toll. Audience members are invited to join in, enacting the early gestures of an emerging group consciousness and counter-hegemonic alignment.
3. Becoming Headless: Acephalic Contagion
This final phase imagines the dissolution of dominant structures through the spontaneous formation of a networked, leaderless collective. Underscored by a rhythmic digital pulse, the sonic landscape invokes both urgency and cohesion, drawing participants into a shared temporal flow. Here, music becomes a vector for the transformation of social relations—a conduit for the contagious dynamics of solidarity, resistance, and reimagined futurity.07–2025 | The Horse Hospital, LOndon