Their Nocturnal Poioumenon
City of Women, 2009
'One persistently fiddles with the top button of her blouse
- a little distressed perhaps, hard to tell - whilst another observes her with care and winks towards someone I can’t quite see. A single heeled black suede shoe droops dejectedly from the hand of its owner, not needed for the nonce. A polished silver pocket watch links a couple together briefly before resting from its chain. Two middle fingers touch slyly for a moment. An index finger breaks a circle, then pokes around a mouth. Too many hands touch too many faces for me to remember each one; I do know that most are caresses and just a few are shields. Tired wrists are rubbed, squeezed or simply inspected. Some of the younger women sit on the edge of a kerb stone, gilding the gutter.'
Their Nocturnal Poioumenon: Notes on City of Women is an essay commissioned by artist Jaki Irvine for a poster publication to accompany her film City of Women (2009).
Published by The LAB, Dublin in City of Women
Plate six from The Harlot's Progress by William Hogarth (1732)