“ART ENABLES US to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time,” Thomas Merton once wrote.

If you’re looking to lose yourself in some thought-provoking, illuminating artworks this week, you are in luck as there are a number of quality exhibitions taking place around the country.

Here are just a few.

In Case of Emergency

When: Until February 11th

Where: Science Gallery, Dublin

Feeling panicked about the state of the world? Having nightmares about nuclear disasters and health epidemics? The Science Gallery’s latest exhibition may not alleviate your fears, but it ought to provide some much-needed food for thought.

In Case of Emergency explores everything pertaining to the end of the world as know it, including climate change, health epidemics, and natural disasters. There are a series of interactive pieces, including one in which visitors are invited to write their fear on a post-it, however large or small, and map it on a particular axis.

Additionally, the exhibition features four original artworks commissioned by the gallery. Artists were paired with research institutes to create original pieces, including a sculpture inspired by gamma ray bursts and an interactive book exploring the future of the human species.

Plenty to chew on, so.

Repair

When: January 25th to March 25th

Where: Limerick City Gallery of Art

In her latest exhibition, Cork-based artist Bernadette Cotter explores heady topics like “life and death, religion and ritual, pain and sorrow” through a series of beautifully crafted installations, performances and drawings.

One installation (pictured above) is comprised of used piano strings acquired from Jeffers from Brandon, one of Ireland’s foremost piano companies. The strings are wrapped in red yarn and suspended from the ceiling, surrounded by skeleton figures.

Promises to be a stirring feast for the senses.

Brian McGuire, War Changes Its Address: The Aleppo Paintings

When: January 26th to May 6th

Where: Irish Museum of Modern Art

Last year, Irish artist Brian McGuire traveled to Aleppo and witnessed firsthand the destruction of a city that has endured relentless bombardment since 2012. In his latest series of paintings, he viscerally captures the utter devastation left behind in the wake of the Syrian Civil War. These giant canvases will stay with you long after you’ve left them.

Krass Clement – The Light Gleams An Instant

When: Until January 28th

Where: Gallery of Photography, Dublin

In this exhibition, the Gallery of Photography brings together two projects by Danish photographer Krass Clement. In 1991, Clement spent time in Dublin photographing people on the streets of the capital. A few years later, he traveled to Drum in Co. Monaghan and spent a single evening in a pub taking photos of the patrons.

The result is a collection of stunning black-and-white photos that serve as an invaluable document of both rural and urban life in 1990s Ireland. It ends on Sunday, so make sure you pop in before its too late.