On Thursday the 16th of May we are going to visit two exhibitions. Starting with Lisa Freeman’s ‘Approx 1 Second of a Sweet Kiss’ at Temple Bar Gallery, and moving on from there to the Pallas Projects to have a look at ‘Mega Dreoilín’ by NAMACO. When we’re done here, we will head to Lucky’s for a chat.
Please RSVP below to let me know if you are going so we can get an idea of numbers. Thanks!
Date & Time
Thursday the 16th of May | 16:00 – 18:00
Meeting Point – 16:00
5-9 Temple Bar,
Dublin 2,
D02 AC84
Google Maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZfeNkrH4APu63wEE7
Next Stop – 17:00
Pallas Projects/Studios,
115-117, The Coombe,
The Liberties,
Dublin,
D08 A970
Google Maps: https://goo.gl/maps/r17GSaSeqfZcUkX68
Post Art Chat – 18:00 onwards
Lucky’s
Outside Area
Google Maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/8RC6kpbum6ANgjo1A
RSVP
About The Exhibitions
Lisa Freeman – Approx 1 Second of a Sweet Kiss
Sunlight heightens intensity. It bleaches or enhances colour, it focuses attention and strains the eyes, it is simultaneously nourishing and draining; it expresses a multitude of contradictions that elevate and impede closeness and connection. In her new film, ‘Approx 1 Second of a Sweet Kiss’ (2023-24), Lisa Freeman, draws on natural light’s influence on psychological positivity, patterns and focus. The film begins with an awakening, the soft vibration of a phone call in a room lit with the bright glow of summer sunshine. The call is answered by a young woman who relays her experience of a personal dilemma, and tells of how the artificial lights at home have been fizzing and flashing, a hint that an energy imbalance is affecting her luck and connectivity to others. As the woman opens the apartment’s balcony doors, the sound of a bustling city square fills the room and she immediately falls into a state of relaxation.
‘Approx 1 Second of a Sweet Kiss’ follows the woman, the film’s protagonist, as she makes her way through an unfamiliar city. During the course of a day, she meets several people with their own sets of expectations and forms of communication. The film uses elements of holiday suspense or ‘sunshine noir’ genres to convey psychological drama, but rather than the protagonist succumbing to a situation of horror or dread, her encounters are acts of kindness and openness from strangers in a place away from home. These gestures appear unnerving, even to the woman, as there is an expectation of hostility and confrontation in this urban landscape. Freeman reclaims a sense of tenderness and generosity in the civic space, which is a development of her recent works that also address gaps in emotional and verbal interaction (‘Slipped, Fell and Smacked my Face on the Dance Floor’, 2022), and social isolation in the public realm (‘Hook, Spill, Cry Your Eyes Out’, 2022). Rejecting the desire for idyllic escapism, Freeman instead proposes intimacy as a method of resistance.
“A committee of vultures sweeps the Dublin sky. Composed of landlords, investment funds and the political juggernaut known as Fianna Gael, they pursue a bloodthirsty quest to dominate all land and wealth, leaving death and destruction in their wake.
But unknown to them, an underground force unfolds its wings. Foretold by the Ancient Celts as An Dreoilín or Draoi éan – druid bird – the tiny wrens emerge as a fearless foe.
As main character Em (they/them), you must battle landlords, Gardaí and vultures across four Dublin-based levels. But can you uncover the Mega Dreoilín, an ancient energy field within yourself and your allies, in order to face your final adversary?”
NAMACO emerges from a decaying Dublin to unleash bizarre edutainment products on unsuspecting landlords. Headed by Han Hogan and Donal Fullam, NAMACO makes video games that demystify housing precarity, cultural space scarcity and the effects of corporate landlordism in Dublin for a generation of renters unwillingly trapped in adolescence. Featuring a cast of characters which includes Avril Corroon, Ian Lynch and Rory Hearne, Mega Dreoilín posits that Ireland’s age-old land question is not as complicated as our political representatives would have us believe.
16-bit video game Mega Dreoilín is a radical reimagining of edutainment designed for the demographic of ‘Generation Rent’. Positioning itself as a revolutionary instructional manual, Mega Dreoilín allows players to learn about the bureaucratic land dominance imposed on Ireland by successive waves of colonisers, landlords and global multinationals, as well as the strategies required for collective resistance against these sinister powers.