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VISUAL ART:AROUND 1730 William Hogarth produced a series of six satirical paintings under the title The Harlot’s Progress. The series sprang from just one painting, which gave Hogarth the idea for an episodic story of a country girl who, after brief success as a fashionable courtesan in London, is cruelly used, falls into prostitution and is quickly dispatched by a brutal society, aged just 23. The paintings no longer survive, which is a pity, but Hogarth went on to make a popular series of engravings from them. They pre-date his better known The Rake’s Progress.

Hogarth was a sharp-eyed social observer, and his intricately detailed compositions hinge on subtle actions and gestures. It is these details, curled up within the images, so to speak, that Jaki Irvine has turned to as a source for her short film City of Women, a joint project on the part of Dublin City Council’s The Lab, and Draíocht in Blanchardstown. The Lab, located on the corner of Foley Street, is not just a gallery – it also houses the council’s arts office.