Dark undercurrents run in festival art

There is a distinctly dark undercurrent to the work of Brazilian-born artist Ana Maria Pacheco, whose big polychromed wood sculptures form the centrepiece exhibition of this year's Kilkenny Arts Festival. The platform on which her Acrobats are suspended has the look of a makeshift gallows about it and, though they smile, they are lashed to a beam with a heavy hemp rope, more victims than performers.

Another visiting artist, Michael Porter, who is based in Cornwall, is showing with Thomastown inhabitants Bernadette Kiely and George Vaughan at the Grennan Mill at Thomastown, and American artists Petah Coyne is at the Butler Gallery.

With several other shows, plus another display of sculpture in the stunning setting of Kells Priory, a visit to Kilkenny is essential.