It is art, art, art all week. At a gala dinner at the Irish Museum of Modern Art last night, the Glen Dimplex Award is presented to this year's winner (see news pages). Rock 'n' roll singer, Gavin Friday, who is one of the judges in the competition, is full of excitement at being involved for the first time in choosing the winner from the four shortlisted artists. He's also celebrating the fact that he and Bono are number five (at time of going to press) in the US charts with their duet, Moulin Rouge.
Art again at the Green on Red Gallery, when a collection of work by artist Fergus Martin, is unveiled. The work includes six portraits, which avail of "a kind of digital surgery".
The photographs he uses were taken by Anthony Hobbs from Kilkenny, who attends the sunlit opening on Lombard Street East. The digital imagining is by Hobbs and Martin. The exhibition includes photographs, paintings and sculptures.
Artist Dorothy Cross, radiant in orange and pink (those Bacon colours again), who created Ghost Ship, is here. She's currently working on a film project, entitled Medusae, with her brother, Prof Tom Cross, head of zoology at UCD. "It's all about jellyfish," she explains. James Ryan, author of Seeds of Doubt, is also there. The Rathdowney writer is looking forward to reading at the Dublin Writers' Festival. Architects Niall McCullough and Valerie Mulvin attend also to view the Martin collection. They're busy working on finishing off the new extension to the Trinity Library.
Composer Kevin Volans is just back from Brussels where his new theatre piece, Zeno at 4 a.m, was performed at the Kunsten Festival Des Arts, he says. He chats to fellow composer, Gerald Barry, who is currently writing a string quartet to be premiered at the Cork Chamber Music Festival in Bantry at the end of June. Artist Corbin Walker, just back from Tokyo, is also busy working away on a new piece of work.
He's been commissioned by Mitsubishi to create a permanent installation to stand in the main atrium of their building in the city, which is opposite the Imperial Palace. His deadline is June 2002.
Sure, no rush at all.