ZOË’S DUBLIN DIARY: TELEPHONES, JACOBIN LAUNCH, ART AS STATECRAFT

Wednesday, 16 March — Richard Gorman: Iwano, 18:00, Free, Kerlin Gallery

There’s somehow more going on this (eew) “Paddy’s Day Eve” than Paddy’s Day itself. Start your evening by checking out Richard Gorman’s exhibition Iwano in the Kerlin Gallery. Gorman’s works are noted for their pure explorations of colour and shape, and their playful quality. A Dubliner by birth, but resident in Milan, Gorman frequently travels to Japan to work with a paper factory in Echizen, located in the rural west and so renowned for its paper factories that it also hosts a temple to the paper goddess.

Iwano was a master paper producer who died at the start of this year, and the last works that Gorman made with him also happened to be his most ambitious pieces ever. All the pieces are handmade, and the colour is soaked into the pulp using moulds, lending it even more vibrancy. The Facebook event is here.

Thursday, 17 March — Telephones: Snakes on a Playground Party, 14:00, €10/15/20, BYOB, Schoolyard, Dublin 8

Spring is here and school is back in session, and Telephones is back in its original D8 schoolyard. John Mahon (The Locals) and Louis Scully (Discotekken) run the Telephones series, which this Thursday will serve up its usual mix of disco, Afrobeat, funk and Italo. Robbie Kitt, Liam Maher and Joma will also be on-set spinning records, and food will be provided by sandwich professionals Doughboys Sandwich Shop. Register your interest here.

Friday, 18 March — Portals and Pathways, 13:00-18:00, Free, MART

Opening this Wednesday, Eoin O’Connor’s show is a collection of works produced in the US and UK, Australia and Japan over the past twelve months. The preview night will include a screening of James Skeritt’s short documentary, recording his 2015 trip to Japan, and Eoin O’Connor’s long-exposure photography. More details here.

Saturday, 19 March — Launch: Jacobin 1916, 12:00, Free, Liberty Hall

The Irish edition of the Jacobin magazine is launching this Saturday in Liberty Hall, in association with SIPTU. The issue will examine 1916 and Ireland’s revolutionary period from a socialist perspective, and the day will comprise of a Workers’ Republic conference, featuring various performance and discussion groups.

Panels will include Jacobin editor Bhaskar Sunkara, Stephen Rea, Karan Casey and Jer O’Learly discussing the edition’s purpose; Tish Gibbons and Padraig Yeates from SIPTU, historian Niamh Puirseil, Come Here To Me‘s Donal Fallon, Sarah O’Rourke and Sarah-Anne Buckley talking about the Irish revolution; and Bernadette Devlin-McAliskey, Ethel Buckley, Robert Ballagh, Lynn Ruane, Dan Finn, Brian Hanley and Micheline Sheehy-Skeffington looking at the Irish Republic today. More here.

Sunday, 20 March — Future Composers, 19:00, €8, Chocolate Factory

In collaboration with St Patrick’s Festival, and as part of I Love My City, Ensemble Music are showcasing three inventive new Irish ensembles in the Chocolate Factory: hacker performance collective the Dublin Laptop Orchestra, contemporary classical ensemble Kirkos and choral group Tonnta Music. Using Ireland’s centenary celebrations as its springboard, Future Composers is looking to explore what the next century holds for the landscape of Irish music. As well as performing their own works, they’ll premiere Linda Buckley’s “Oblique”, specially commissioned for the evening. Book a ticket here or visit the Facebook event page here.

Monday, 21 March — High Rise, 15:40, €7.60, Irish Film Institute

J.G. Ballard is brought to the screen in glossy depiction by Ben Wheatley. Neurologist Robert Laing, played by Tom Hiddleton, moves to a skyscraper at the edge of an unnamed UK metropolis. Strictly divided by class – super-rich at the top, poor at the bottom – residents supposedly have all they need, until the disparity becomes clear and the lower residents take matters into their own hands. Aesthetically immaculate, Wheatley shifts from Ballard’s exposition of society’s delicate power structures to a more general look at degeneracy and survivalism. See the film listing here.

Tuesday, 22 March — Statecraft, 11:30-17:00, Irish Museum of Modern Art

Students from the IADT Masters in Art and Research Collaboration are using IMMA’s Project Space as a public research hub, exploring how art practice and art thinking can produce alternative forms of “statecraft”. The project joins together IMMA’s own residency programme, and the Free International University Model of Joseph Beuys and Dorothy Walker. It runs until 3 April, and includes events and activities such as the launch of Michelle Doyle’s sound art podcast Hit Parade this Wednesday, anaudio walk through IMMA with Amy Farrell and Susan Gogan and a workshop with Jai Thorn and Marie Thornton exploring embroidery and identity. Explore here.