Things to Do: Embrace silence, hear a few ghost stories and see the world from the perspective of an insect

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Once Before I Go in the Warehouse

Up at the Warehouse in Balbriggan tonight, the SCÉAL Arts Collective is hosting a talk with playwright Phillip McMahon and Irish Times journalist Una Mullally.

The pair will be discussing McMahon’s 2021 play Once Before I Go, which after its premiere at the Gate Theatre was added to the Leaving Cert curriculum. Set against the backdrop of the gay rights movement in Dublin over the 1980s and 1990s, as well as the contemporary LGBTQI+ community, explores the friendship of Lynn, Daithì and Bernard over three decades from the early days of the AIDS crisis up to the era of marriage equality.

The talk begins at 19.00, and you can book tickets here.

Together in Commune at Rua Red

Then, over in Tallaght on Friday evening, Rua Red will be launching the first exhibition from its Studio Programme.

Curated by Marysia Więckiewicz, Together in Commune is a group show that looks at “the processes of research, dialogue, experimentation and collective exchange that unfold within the studio”, and featured are Rua Red’s current residents: David Beattie, Ala Buisir, Cecilia Bullo, Pauline Cummins, Lauren Kelly, Maria McKinney, and Fiona Whelan.

The exhibition launches at 18.00 tomorrow, with a live performance by Lauren Kelly, titled Against the Oppressor. Together in Commune will be on until 13 September, and over the course of its run, there are a few other events to mark off on your calendar. On Saturdays 5 July and 6 September, Cecilia Bullo will be running a workshop at 14.00 that explores the creation of sculptural talismans and garlands “as gestures of protection, healing and connection”.

Other workshops include Part of the Fabric with Ala Buisir, inviting migrant and/or second-generation communities to explore their collective and archival ancestry through print (beginning on 12 July), while Fiona Whelan is organising one for artists to visualise the process and methods of their practice (18 July and 22 August).

Finally, over the duration of the exhibition, is Along the Camac, a workshop in collaboration with Clondalkin Global Garden, which will teach participants to make bioplastic from milk, produce cheese, and create natural dyes.

Booking for the various workshops is advised, and you can do so here.

Holy Show launch at MOLI

Over the past couple of months, arts and culture journal Holy Show took up residency in the Museum of Literature Ireland, displaying a range of the artworks featured in their first six issues. That includes an embroidered toilet roll created by Hannah Clare de Gordon, and Namaco’s Mega Dreoilín video game.

Unfortunately, the exhibition will be wrapping up this Friday (tomorrow). But, as part of the farewell, they will be launching the latest issue of Holy Show, featuring readings from its contributors, while author Nichole Flattery, photographer Ishmael Claxton, author Clara Kumagai and cartoonist Eoin Rogers will be DJing.

The launch will begin at 18.00, and you can book a ticket here.

Ten-To-Two at The Complex

I’m not going to lie and say Friday isn’t busy this week. It is. But thanks to recent advances in technology, public transport like the Luas enables us to navigate the city with ease.

And Maria Maarbjerg’s Ten-To-Two over at The Complex on Arran Street East seems like a nice gear change after the Holy Show launch.

Beginning at 18.00 on Friday, and continuing until 7 July, Maarbjerg’s photography exhibition examines the luxury of silence, “a rare and precious commodity” in a noisy world. “We seek it out, pay for it,” she writes, “booking silent retreats, investing in noise-canceling headphones, reserving seats in the quiet zone of the train.”

Through photography and video, Maarbjerg examines what silence looks like in a society that never stops speaking.

For more information, visit Maria Maarbjerg’s website here.

Kwaidan and Lafcadio Hearn

It caught me by surprise to learn that there is currently an exhibition in Castleknock devoted to one of Japan’s literary greats: the Irish-Greek writer and translator Lafcadio Hearn.

The author of 1894’s Unfamiliar Glimpses of Japan and the underrated Insect Literature, a collection of essays and stories about bugs, predominantly in Japan, Hearn is best known for his ghost stories. 1904’s Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things is his undisputed magnum opus here, although it also features a few pieces on insects too.

Over at the Farmleigh Gallery in Castleknock, Kwaidan – Encounters with Lafcadio Hearn is currently showing until 24 August, and features works by twenty Irish and Japanese artists in response to the 1904 book.

It is probably the best weekend to visit the exhibition, because on Monday evening, the Irish Film Institute will be screening Masaki Kobayashi’s 1965 adaptation of four folk tales from the book. As part of the event, Paul Murray, author of A Fantastic Journey: The Life and Literature of Lafcadio Hearn, will be introducing the film.

You can book a ticket for the film here, and for more information about the exhibition, visit its page here.

Did I say I miss you? and Kafka’s The Metamorphosis

Finally, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios will be holding a book club next week in conjunction with artist Jorge Satorre’s current exhibition, Did I say I miss you?

Did I say I miss you? comprises a large new sculpture and a set of pencil drawings, which depicts a large gathering of insects populating the exhibition space from the perspectives of CCTV and an insect's eye. And appropriately, the text being discussed in the context of Satorre’s work is Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, the bleakly comical tale of Gregor Samsa after he woke one day from an uneasy dream to find himself transformed into a gigantic insect – or “monstrous vermin”, if we’re going to get into the translation debate.

Unlike most book clubs – which open with admissions of not having read the text – this one will begin with a brief tour of Satorre’s exhibition, followed by a group discussion that focuses on the shared concepts and thematic approaches of the artist and author.

The book club is on Thursday, 3 July at 18.00 and you can book a ticket here.

A limited number of copies of Kafka’s text are available for the unwaged. Contact sadbh@templebargallery.com to request a copy.

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Hibernacle

Hibernacle, a brand new three-day music event is coming to Orlagh House in Rathfarnham between 4 and 6 July.

Artists confirmed for the bill include Pillow Queens, Lisa Hannigan, Ye Vagabonds, Wallis Bird, Ailbhe Reddy, Gráinne Hunt, and Áine Tyrrell, with Villagers set to headline on Saturday.

For more information and to book tickets, visit Hibernacle’s website here.

Football charity match, friends of the elderly

Friends of the Elderly Ireland is organising a charity fundraiser football game this July in Ballymun.

The match in Ballymun FC’s sports ground will see Friends United play Finglas Maypole Legends, a team that arose out of the Finglas Maypole Festival. Kick-off is at 14.00 on Saturday, 19 July.

GAZE line-up

GAZE International LGBTQIA Film Festival has launched its full programme of Irish and international films ahead of the festival at the Light House Cinema and Irish Film Institute from 29 July to 4 August.

Opening the 33rd of the festival is the 1990s New York drama Plainclothes, starring Tom Blyth and Russell Tovey. Also on the bull is Girls & Boys, directed by Donncha Gilmore and starring Liath Hannon and Adam Lunnon-Collery, while a new digital restoration of the 90s lesbian classic, High Art, starring Ally Sheedy is also getting its first ever Irish screening.

For more information, visit the GAZE website here.

Swiftian Drift

Kevin Kavanagh gallery will be holding a Summer Party on Thursday, 3 July from 19.00 to coincide with the opening of Swiftian Drift, a new three-person exhibition by Elaine Byrne, Sean Lynch and Ulrich Vogl.

Dublin City Libraries historian-in-residence open call

Dublin City Libraries and Dublin City Council Culture Company are looking for up to six historians who would like to spend two years in residence, engaging with local communities, conducting research and promoting access to its historical collections.

Applicants are asked to submit by email to opencall@dublincitycouncilculturecompany.ie with the subject: “Application for Dublin City Council Historians in Residence”. The closing date for submissions is Thursday, 31 July.

For more information, visit the open call page here.

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