Himmel und Hölle

Galway Arts Centre, 47 Dominick St. Until Sep 4 091-565886 galwayarts centre.ie

A few years back, Cora Cummins depicted several kinds of open spaces we encounter in urban settings: parks, verges, pieces of waste ground, the centres of roundabouts and so on. In Himmel und Hölle, Cummins looks more systematically at "sites of escape and isolation". That is, the kinds of spaces that we think of in terms of escape, reflection and renewal. She includes "hermits' huts, writers' retreats and caves", so a certain rejection of the world is implied.

The ascetic appeal of such places is set against another kind of escape entirely: sites emblematic of “a culture of shallow consumption and mindless leisure” such as luxury hotel resorts and golf courses. Cummins’s work considers these two extremes and asks whether there is a useful middle ground.

Also on exhibit is Mark Clare's Folly. Clare makes elaborate video and installation works, often involving direct social interactions, that aim to highlight the covert ideological underpinnings of our everyday social worlds and our perceptions of threats, oppositions and identity. The seriousness of the issues is undercut by the humorous, DIY nature of his approach.

Can’t See That? Catch This

Bittersweet Macroom Town Hall Gallery, Macroom, Co Cork Until Aug 21