mother of pearl
1st - 31st August

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A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue of a living shelled mollusk. The finest quality of natural pearls have been highly valued as gemstones and objects of beauty for many centuries. Because of this, pearl has become a metaphor for something rare, fine, admirable and valuable.

A pearl is formed when an organism invades the creature and disrupts the cells in the mantle, the inner soft tissue. The oyster then begins to secrete a smooth crystalline substance known as nacre, solidifying the invading organism. Nacre, or mother of pearl, is the same material that lines the inside of the shell. It takes several years for thousands of layers of nacre to build up and create a pearl. A pearl is a product of survival. 

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'mother of pearl’ is a series of events celebrating Catalyst’s 30th year, the pearl anniversary. Using archival materials and our collective memories of sharing, passing [through], collecting and being we have developed a programme of performances, exhibitions, events and engagements which highlight Catalyst Art’s dedication, significance and influence to the visual arts on the island of Ireland.

Throughout the month we’re excited to gather together and witness brief encapsulations of Catalyst; what it means, how it feels, what it does and how it does them - kind of. We will be launching a new publication which collects the musings, scribbles, scratches, images, memories, maps, poems and prose of 21 ex-directors of the gallery alongside archival images and ephemera; skimming & waxing lyrical across love and marriage, dogs, fires, grief, red wine and cigarettes, bodies, times, spaces, topless sunbathing, home, infamy and crying, blood, ladders. A shocking lack of mentions of art - but there’s always art, apparently.