Things To Do: Subvert Pokémon Go, observe a 40-hour work week, prepare for a weekend of festivals

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Phizzfest

Phizzfest, the annual Phibsborough community and arts festival, returns this weekend, with the proceedings kicking off this evening.

At 6:30pm today, Thursday 7 May, the Mater Hospital will be celebrating the life’s work of artist and Phibsborough resident Albert G. Power, the leading sculptor of the Irish Free State. As part of the event, which takes place in the hospital’s Pillar Centre, Power’s great-granddaughter Sharon O’Meara will be present to discuss his legacy, and art historian Síghle Bhreathnach-Lynch will offer some more insight into his life and work.

There are still some tickets available here.

On Friday evening at 7:30pm, All Saints Church will be hosting ‘شرود Seachrán’, a new project that brings together Irish, Palestinian and Lebanese music and dance, with Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin, Loor Amin, Niamh Keady-Tabbal and Sarraj Alsersawi coming together to explore stories of exile, emigration, love and resistance. You can pick up tickets here.

Then, on Saturday at 8pm, the Mater Hospital’s Pillar Centre is marking the 100th anniversary of F.W. Murnau’s silent film Faust with a new live score by Unshaped Form, featuring Cameron Doyle, Lioba Petrie, Aislinn Ennis, Sam Perkin and special guest Iarla Ó Lionáird. Tickets for that can be secured here.

And finally, running throughout the weekend, the artists in Richmond Road Studios will open their doors to the public for a group show. Among the artists who will be putting their work on display in Phibsborough Tower are Maeve Brennan, Aoife Ward, Sam Burton, Adam Gibney, Taoiseach Shame and Rosie O’Mahoney.

Their exhibition will open at 6pm on Friday 8 May, and will close at 5pm on Sunday 10 May.

Those are just a handful of highlights though. The line-up is loaded with walks, talks, gigs, community cycles and screenings between here and Sunday. To see what else is lined up, visit the Phizzfest website here.

The 40-Hour Work Week

Over a three week period, artist Helen Kirk resided in Temple Bar’s TØN and used it as a work space in a bid to clock 40 hours of creative work per week.

During the creative experiment, Kirk, as a living installation, has sought to investigate “the fault line between [the] modern capitalistic understandings of labor, value, and time, and the ancient codes which drive human beings to create art”.

Now, at the end of this residency, Kirk will be inviting audiences into the gallery on Friday at 6pm to see the results of this experience.

The 40 Hour Work Week will remain on display until this Sunday 10 May. 

For more information, visit the TØN Instagram page here.

Twayblade

Everybody is experimenting with art this week, and Herman’s Auctioneers in Rathmines is no exception.

On Friday 8 May, the auction house on the Lower Rathmines Road will be hosting Twayblade, the debut solo exhibition by painter Liam Murray, which will be paired up with a timed online auction.

The winner of the 2024 RHA Whyte’s Award for best emerging artist, Murray uses his studio, from which the exhibition’s title is derived, as a loose framework for this collection of dreamy, almost collage-like figurative works. They are drawn from everyday encounters, and according to the auctioneer, “move between moments of direct engagement and more internal, absorbed states”.

In other words, the art speaks for itself.

Twayblade opens tomorrow, and will run until 7pm on Friday 22 May, at which point the auction will close.

For more information, or if you want to register to bid, visit the event page here.

A Matter of Time III

The Liberties’ annual festival Culture Date with Dublin 8 is still tipping along this weekend, and if you’re up for combining a lovely stroll with an exhibition that celebrates local business, then A Matter of Time III would be right up your alley.

Artists Ishmael Claxton, María Baez and Jye O’Sullivan have created a self-guided map that brings festival goers to different shops, cafes and studios in the locale where various pieces of art are currently on display.

Each piece depicts and celebrates the participating businesses, with the walk aiming to get its audiences to think about that type of labour that happens within them “as a means of understanding the different sociocultural ecologies that constitute the place”.

A Matter of Time III is a response to the impact of the cost of living crisis on small businesses, and strives to build a tangible connection between the festival goer and the local participants. Taking inspiration from the Pokémon Go app, which according to the MIT Technology Review, is being used to train robot replacements for delivery workers, the trio of artists want to invert this logic.

“Rather than crowdsource data, we have built longstanding relations with workers in the area and, opposed to training their replacements, we seek to bring folks to them,” the artists say.

Between now and Sunday, you should wander through the likes of Meath, Francis and Thomas Street to see the various pieces of art, all of which are accompanied by streamable or downloadable field recordings.

Among the participating businesses are Timepiece Antique Clocks, Betty Bojangles, Fusco Cafe, James Fagan Tailor Communion Suits, Marrowbone Books, and Thomas Dry Cleaners.

For more information, visit their event page here, the interactive map is available here.

CeLiberties

While you’re in the area, another highlight of the Culture Date with Dublin 8 festival is CeLiberties, the new exhibition by artist Duc Van Pham.

Currently in The Bank on Thomas Street, and showing until Sunday 10 May, CeLiberties is a celebration of the area that Van Pham has called home for the last 15 years. Described as a celebration of the old and the new, the artists depicts the spirit of Dublin 8 through surrealist portraits and swirling brushstrokes that capture the energy and essence of the place and its inhabitants.

For more information, follow Van Pham over on his Instagram page here.

Island of Imagination

Finally, on Wednesday evening, Fingal County Council will be celebrating the re-opening of their recently refurbished Carnegie Library in Skerries.

To mark the occasion, Laureate for Irish Fiction Éilís Ní Dhuibhne will be hosting a conversation with writer Caitriona Lally about her fiction writing, her most recent novel Wunderland, and her recently published memoir Home Economics.

The talk is part of Ní Dhuibhne’s ongoing series Island of Imagination: A Literary Tour of Ireland, and will begin at 7pm.

Attendance is free and open to the public, but booking is essential. To reserve a ticket, you will need to contact Skerries Library directly on 01 8905 671 or email skerrieslibrary.library@fingal.ie.

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Creative Places Balbriggan

Fingal Arts Office has officially launched the ‘Creative Places Balbriggan Strategy 2026-2027’, together with a brand new funding scheme for Balbriggan called ‘Making Waves’.

The ‘Making Waves Seed Funding Scheme 2026’ will provide seed funding for creative programmes that involve community members working collaboratively with an artist to develop new ideas and creative activities.

The fund is now open to individual artists, community groups, and community organisations. Funding of up to €5,000 per applicant is available. The deadline for applying is Friday, 26 June.

For more information, visit the Creative Places page here.

The Little Lilliputian Family Morning Rave

Cheeky Piglet Café will be hosting a fun early morning family rave as part of Culture Date with Dublin 8 this Sunday 10 May.

The rave, which promises coffee and feel good hits for parents and kids, will kick off at 6:30am and continue until 8:30am.

Featuring DJ Billy Scurry, the rave is €10 for general admission, or €20 for a family ticket (two adults, two kids).

For more information and to book a ticket, visit the event page here.

Harbour Cinema Club

Harbour Cinema Club is a free monthly film night bringing international cinema and global stories to the Seán O'Casey Community Centre in East Wall.

On 18 May, they will be screening The Old Man (Shal), a Kazakh film by Ermek Tursunov which reimagines Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Old Man and the Sea, within the landscape of Kazakhstan.

After the screening, there will be a discussion about Kazakh culture and snacks.

The screening is at 6pm. To book a ticket, visit the Harbour Cinema Club event page here.