It is difficult to avoid the serious stuff sometimes, even in party land. Not only is there hymn-singing and psalm-reading (really), there is talk at this week's parties of the apocalypse, spirituality, the Oedipal attraction, longevity and . . . em, interior design. Maybe it was the cold weather which focused our minds on such weighty matters.
Artists gather to talk about archetypical representations and social taboos at a party to celebrate the screening of a new short film by Gerard Byrne. For those who want to view A Crime Dramatically Reconstructed, Again, it will be screened again tonight and from Tuesday to Saturday next week, between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. in Temple Bar's Meeting House Square. "It's an experimental film in which my brother and twin, Philip, acts as the guinea-pig who sets out to transgress social taboos that Freud articulated," says Byrne. It is to do with the Oedipus Complex, he explains.
Should we expect nudity, we wonder breathlessly? No, he says. "It's extremely discreet and, on another level, it's very direct." Ah, well. He's pleased the film is going to be shown in Meeting House Square because, "it's the place of public execution". Viewers in the square, he explains, "symbolise the pyschoanalyst listening to the sick patient." Hmmm.
The film is part of Temple Bar Properties' Outdoor Images series, as organised by Aileen Corkery, who explains that the series will run until the end of March and is to feature the work of six more artists.
Present at the screening are composer Denis Roche; artist Corban Walker; interior designer Brian McDonald in a dashing pin-stripe suit; writer and film-maker Malcolm Mac Clancy and Kyoto-born print-maker Yoko Akino. Caoimhin Mac Giolla Leith, UCD lecturer in Irish, is also here. The couple who got married in Rome last year, graphic designer Ruth Martin and artist Eoghan O'Reilly, are also present to view the work.
Byrne wonders how his mother, who is present, will react. Margie Byrne is very proud afterwards and very moved by the film, which features the beautiful music of La Tosca. E lucevan le Stellae is sung by Enrico Caruso, recorded in 1902, which was his first recording session.
