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fter experiencing some traumatic events as a teen
in the eighties, the Irish multidisciplinary artist Paul Murnaghan locked himself in his bedroom and began creating art by crafting music inspired by the likes of Joy Division, Bauhaus, and Magazine. Throughout the nineties, he began experimenting with different media for his expression. “What I often do to start a project is I’ll put an advertisement in a newspaper or online,” Paul tells Totally Dublin of his process. “When I get feedback, it will inform me on what I’m going to do. “So, there was one idea in the Limerick City Gallery [of Art]. To begin the exhibition, I put an ad in a paper, asking if I could have the ashes of a loved one to make an artwork out of. So, the question begins the process, and also begins the artwork. “So, when I had the ashes, then I had to decide, ‘What do I do with ashes? Do you form them into a shape or something? How would that work?’ And I decided, actually, to just spread them out onto a big brass plate on a pedestal, and I took a scientific film of hydra, which scientists say is an immortal microorganism that lives in water – it’s all around us – and it can divide cells and repair itself, and, seemingly, doesn’t die. So, I projected an immortal being onto the ashes of a dead being, so it was almost like God laying on top of humanity, in a way.” As can probably be discerned by that response, Paul has always been fascinated with the cross-section between the scientific and 25