IT was a very curious crowd that wandered among the packing cases at the opening of the "Ramus" exhibition in the Hugh Lane Gallery and indeed Finola Jones and David Godhold were not alone in admiring them nearly as much as the exhibits. The cases were full of works which will tour Japan from May 14th - they were replaced by an exhibit by 17 artists invited to produce work inspired by the Botanic Gardens.
The director of the gardens, Donal Synnott, along with city manager, John Fitzgerald and the Minister for the Environment, Brendan Howlin, declared the exhibition officially open. Sid Sinnott and Ken Griffith of the band Rollerskate Skinny chatted with exhibitor Mark Clare, who is shortly to exhibit in the Jo Rain Gallery in Temple Bar. Cliona Doyle, creator of some delicate prints upstairs, sat on the steps with RTE's Molly Byrne and Helen Carroll.
Cliona's partner, Paki Smith, is trying to find time for painting before he launches into the art direction of Sweetie Barratt, a movie directed by Stephen Bradley which will start filming at the end of the summer.
Other exhibitors strolling round were the multi-media artist Michael Minnis; Pauline Flynn, whose exhibition of abstract paintings has just toured around the country; print-maker Jessica Grehan; painter Brian McMahon and jeweller and project co-ordinator Clodagh Thornton. Katrina Maguire's fetishist tulips dominated one of the rooms.