Artists flock to an opening night in Tosca Restaurant this week to meet and enjoy a touch of hypertextualisation. The night is to celebrate the work of Adrienne Geoghegan, whose exhibition of illustrations and collages - her humorous, colourful work often appears on these pages - will remain on view at Norman Hewson's premises until until Sunday, April 30th.
A fan and friend, Peter Rawcliffe, with long curling hair, a red dickie-bow and a fine Liverpudlian accent, says he's here for the "hypertextualisation". Ah. Boru Vodka obviously has nothing to do with the large turnout, then. Hypertextualisation, he explains, "is using words as well as using art". He has travelled over from the University of Wales, Newport, to view Geoghegan's exhibition, called this bockaddy life. "She's bloody clever and a damn good illustrator," he adds for good measure. "I'm the master and she's the mistress," says a cheeky Sean Hillen. Geoghegan greets her fellow illustrator warmly. "We're mutual admirers," she explains. Her niece, Ciara Haughney (12), wants to be an artist when she's older.
A row of artists sits eating tasty pizza bites. Alongside husband and wife Campbell Bruce and Jackie Stanley (who remembers to mention that her work is currently on view at the National Concert Hall), is Antonio Carty, who says he's painting Gothic cathedrals in Spain at the moment. Artists Maggie Madden, from Connemara and Kelly Donahugh, from Taos in New Mexico, are also checking out the hypertextualisation. P.J. Lynch, a book illustrator from Belfast, is having a chat with Denis McArdle, a singer, who is dressed in tweeds tonight. "Like the Man of Aran?" he offers. Precisely.