Amanda Dunsmore works in art processes that explore representations of societal transformation through contextual portraiture and social historic projects. Dunsmore’s accumulative legacy practice examines place, people and moments of political significance.
The extraordinary artwork AGREEMENT (2004 - 2023), features 14 video portraits of community and political leaders behind the Belfast Good Friday Agreement, sitting in silence. In 2023, a special 3-screen presentation of the artwork, toured to five community venues across Northern Ireland: GFA/25.
In 2024, the Mitchell Art Gallery, Canada presented AGREEMENT as one portrait a week, over a fourteen-weeks. In a time when conflicts are increasingly apprehended via seconds-long social media videos, this exhibition invites viewers into a slow practice of sitting in silence with each signatory of the Belfast ‘Good Friday’ Agreement over many weeks. Sitting with people across ideological divides in the gallery echoes the sustained engagement required over four years for the signatories to come to an agreement and the commitments required in communities to continue practices that support keeping peace. Carolyn Jervis, Director, Mitchell Art Gallery, MacEwan University, Edmonton, Canada. May, 2024