Lisa Freeman's five-channel film explores urban tenderness at Temple Bar Gallery

Lisa Freeman's five-channel video installation 'Approx 1 Second of a Sweet Kiss' (2023–24) runs at Temple Bar Gallery in Dublin from March 22 to May 19. The 13-minute work features four women drifting through pastel-colored urban environments, with men appearing only as incidental figures. Freeman recut an original single-channel version to create a consciously nondramatic study of lowkey interactions and everyday longing. Visual elements include soft pastel palettes, blurred camera focus, and slow-motion details replaying across monitors. Audio incorporates hypnagogic droning and a manipulated sample from André 3000's vocals on Kelis's 2003 track 'Millionaire'. The installation's physical setup—monitors on steel poles with aluminum chairs—contrasts with the film's woozy scenes. Displayed against Dublin's clamorous streetscape visible through the gallery's windows, the work presents a hopeful urban dream-vision that questions what routine public tenderness might mean for social space. The review references Irish literary critic Vivian Mercier's comment about Samuel Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot' and Anthony Lane's New Yorker review of Celine Song's film 'Past Lives'.