PATRICK Kavanagh once suggested that art which attracted the attention of the police was not art at all, a thought that might have particular interest to Desperate Optimists, the London based, Irish, performance group. As part of their performance Dedicated, which was seen at this year's "Live at the Project" festival, members of the group, portraying class warriors, constructed "communique's" to send to prominent individuals, writes Luke Clancy. These communique's, which were of a tendentious nature, included a tape of some stream of consciousness monologues on contemporary society and some copies of digital artwork by the group's photographer, Amanda Harman.

On the night I saw the performance, two such communique's were put into manila envelopes and addressed, one to the owner of Brown Thomas, the other to the chief executive of the Bank of Ireland, which is why I recently found myself in an interrogation room at Pearse Street Garda Station discussing the nature of art. The envelopes, it transpired, had indeed been posted, causing some alarm in their recipients. The packages were handed over to the Gardai, who are attempting to ascertain the significance of their contents.

According to Fiach MacConghail, director of the Project, who was also spoken to by the gardai, Desperate Optimists also send a communique to Patty Hearst, after every performance. It is not known if any of these reached its destination.