Art Choice

Declan Clarke’s investigation into the human desire towards inscription takes him to two unusual Dublin venues. At the G B Shaw birthplace in Synge Street, above, his film I Know There’s An Answer reflects on the writings of Lord Byron, W B Yeats and Shaw. Rather than focusing on the literary texts, however, Clarke explores the writers’ love of writing their names, which Byron carved into trees and the floor of his ancestral home. The film concludes with a meditation on Clarke’s obsession with writing his name on walls and mirrors. Meanwhile, his piece in the Iveagh Gardens, a shrub spelling out the phrase “We have a problem”, echoes the tree carvings of the writers. Less obviously it suggests how words can transform the world in a homage to those writers who changed literature and society.