David Fleming went along to independent candidate for Dublin central, Kerry Guinan’s, inaugural press conference held yesterday evening in the Temple Bar gallery and studios. Studio 6 was full to capacity with roughly 50 people in attendance.

We snuck in through the side entrance and hid out at the back of the room like the class bold boys we are. Guinan is running as an artist, for art workers and all those excluded from art work with the ultimate goal of creating mass participation in art that she believes will politicize society and liberate art from class, spoken like a true Marxist.

She began with a speech that was delivered in a spoken word/poetry style unlike that of Michael Noonan. In an eloquent speech, which was being streamed to three other locations around the country, she criticised the commercialisation of art, the closing of many art spaces, workshops and studios around the city and the proposed demolition of Moore St.

Guinan’s proposed programs include abolishing educational barriers to art work, assuming complete state responsibility for the provision of art facilities and to “enable and encourage total access to art work by introducing an Art-Producing Welfare Allowance solely allocated by financial means testing with quota systems for genders, sexes, abilities, races and nationalities”.

So there you have it nothing more than the total liberation of the people and the formation of a classless society, should be easy, but in a constituency that has three seats two of which are predicted to go to Pascal Donoghue and Mary Lou that leaves just one left.

Polls suggest it could be an independent candidate. The favourites would be Christy Burke and Maureen O’Sullivan. Perhaps Guinan can pull off a shock victory and realise her vision of bringing art to the people.

It would certainly make Dail Eireann a bit more interesting.

You can check out Kerry Guinan’s portfolio website here.