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exhibition Perfection Some of us strive for it, s
ome of us even attain it, but perfection is often a fleeting, illusive and damaging ideal. Emerging from its sister gallery off-shoot in Melbourne, Perfection investigates the concept through a typically eclectic variety of informative strands covering philosophy, ethnicity, genetics, cognitive science, artificial intelligence and consumer psychology. There’s Graham (pictured, by Patricia Piccinini), a neckless creation to show what we would look like if we were to withstand a low speed crash. Meet Orlan, the French artist known for the radical act of changing her appearance with plastic surgery in the name of art. Similar to the self-portraits of Cindy Sherman, Orlan uses her face and body as malleable tools for shifting identities. Symbiotic Ones (Jane Sverdrupsen) explores the notion that many couples look similar to one while Morphoteque #15 (Driessens and Verstappen) reflects the human urge for standardisation within food. Science Gallery until Sunday October 6 theatre The Hunger A new opera by Donnacha Dennehy (The Last Hotel, The Second Violinist) featuring Katherine Manley and Iarla Ó Lionáird (The Gloaming) chronicles the tale of Asenath Nicholson who travelled in Ireland and provided relief to starving people during the Great Famine. Her harrowing first-person account Annals of the Famine in Ireland forms the basis of this work with director Tom Creed making his Abbey debut. Traditional songs dovetail with new music, while video interviews with Noam Chomsky, Paul Krugman, and others underscore the political roots of this tragedy that brought a nation to its knees. Abbey Theatre, Monday August 19 to Saturday August 24, €13-40 exhibition Mark Dion - Our Plundered Planet Mark Dion invites us to take a closer look – not only at the natural environment, but also through his art at our inherited philosophical ideas about nature. At a time when greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are at historically high levels and the polar glaciers are melting, Our Plundered Planet, Dion’s exhibition poses the question of human responsibility – what is the relationship between human beings and our biospheres? Urgent considerations with shifting narratives across multiple rooms as Dion deploys different strategies to arrest our attention. Hugh Lane Gallery until Monday September 1 85