VISUAL ART:MENTION lycanthropy and it s more than likely people will think of werewolves. A lycanthrope is a human being who shape-shifts into a predatory, wolf-like creature, a transformation triggered, according to mythological convention, by the light of the full moon. Writers have warmed to the theme, but what really gave it teeth, so to speak, was the advent of cinema. The history of popular cinema is liberally sprinkled with stories of werewolves, including, to take one local example, Neil Jordan s dazzling screen version of Angela Carter s  The Company of Wolves.

"Utopia means nowhere or no-place. It is often taken to mean good place, through confusion of its first syllable with the Greek eu as in euphemism or euology. As a result of this mix-up, another word dystopia has been invented, to mean bad place. But, strictly speaking, imaginary good places and imaginary bad places are all utopias, or nowheres. "

In search of Utopia was a recent group exhibition featuring Dorothy Cross, Ailbhe Ní Bhriain, Louise Manifold, Michelle Browne, Cao Fei and Dennis del Favero, curated by Maeve Mulrennan in the Nuns Island Theatre of Galway Arts Centre from 23 May to 6 June 2009. Coinciding with the Volvo Ocean Race, the exhibition took as its starting point the motion of the race itself. "It can be seen as a metaphor for how we are constantly searching for something better, always moving towards what we see as a preferable situation to what we are currently in."