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LIFE IN CITIES Anyone who caught the recent Prix
Pictet exhibition in the Gallery of Photography will have noticed Michael Wolf’s Tokyo Compression prints of commuter faces smudged against windows in the crush of rush hour on the subways. Life in Cities is a major exhibition of the German photographer featuring 12 series of photographs including the aforementioned Compression series, the sublime Paris Rooftops and his mesmeric Architecture of Density (2003–2014). Its centrepiece is The Real Toy Story (2004–2018) which features more than 20,000 cheap toys bearing the Made in China tag. These provide the framework for Wolf to place portraits of the workers in these Chinese toy factories in their midst, contrasting their wearisome lot with overwhelming brightly coloured, mass-produced toys. Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, until March 2 photomichaelwolf.com deichtorhallen.de ROADMAP Michael McDermott LETTER FROM AMERICA Letters to the editor are sadly few and far between these days. Actually e-mails are also but one from Tom Kenny landed in the inbox on January 10. “I just read your article about my favourite bookstore in Dublin (Ulysses Rare Books). I first discovered the shop when I worked for Eric Clapton and we went for a walk one day with Derick Taylor (Beatles publicist) Phil Collins and Ray Cooper. We were rehearsing in Dublin and I was the official guide and interpreter. Since then I’ve brought Charlie Watts here. He then told Mick Jagger and Keith Richards who loves it too. On this day, the anniversary of his death, January 10th, the last time I was in Dublin with Bowie he would always pop in. He discovered it years before. It’s a place I tell everyone to visit while in Dublin so you never know who’s browsing secretively in that store.” Intrigued as to how Tom kept such illustrious company, we started some correspondence which led us to discover he’s a renowned Irish lighting designer who lives in Miami now. Dating from U2’s A Celebration back in 1982 through AC/DC Live at Donnington through to the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards, Kenny has a well stocked IMDB page. We’re looking forward to a cup of tea in his company when he passes through here next. ARTECH NOUS It’s often easy to forget how a herd mentality can damage the development of this city. Do we really need new more whiskey distilleries for tourists? No. Do we need an alcohol-free bar called The Virgin Mary? Yes. There is a distinct danger of our tourist offering becoming staid and largely irrelevant to younger tourists. (We’ll talk about our decimated club scene elsewhere in the magazine.) And don’t forget some of us locals actually like daring and contemporary too. So here’s an idea – develop a franchise of Artechouse in Dublin. This digital art gallery, which first opened in Washington in 2017 and now has outlets in New York and Miami, houses experiential and immersive large scale installations by artists who are forerunners of the new age in arts and technology. For an instagram generation, the likes of Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrors, the work of NoirFlux or closer to home Lightscape, Algorithm and LeTissier deserve a permanent platform for their fluid creations. artechouse.com DAYDREAM NATION Not alone is it 30 years since the Fall of the Wall in Berlin this November, it’s also 30 years since Sonic Youth released their seminal album Daydream Nation. And to mark the occasion, drummer Steve Shelley and director Lance Bangs come to town to showcase films related to the album, excerpts of the Bangsdirected concert film along with Charles Atlas’s documentary Put Blood In The Music. Irish Film Institute, Saturday March 2, €16 When a Fyre starts to burn… where better to celebrate the shitshow that was Fyre than in the mecca that is the Crumlin Shopping Centre. Top celebrities attending include Mary Byrne, Red Hurley, Brendan Grace, Bertie Ahern, Samantha Mumba, Samantha Mumba’s brother and many many more! FB: Crumlinshopingcentre (yes, there’s only one p!) 10