AGREEMENT (2004 - 2023) is a unique artwork series of 14 video portraits, depicting individuals involved in the Good Friday / Belfast Agreement of 1998, which ended decades of violent conflict in Northern Ireland.

AGREEMENT: 3-sceen presentation, depicts Mo Mowlam portrait made from archival media, machine learning, Ulster University, Belfast. 2023.
Monica McWilllaims in front of her filmed portrait, Ulster University, Belfast. April, 2023. Photographer Darren Kidd

AGREEMENT features, in order of filming : David Ervine, PUP, 2004; John Alderdice, Alliance Party, 2005; Martin McGuinness, Sinn Féin, 2005; John Hume, SDLP, 2005; David Trimble, UUP, 2017; George Mitchell, United States Special Envoy for NI, 2018; Monica McWilliams, NIWC, 2019; Pearl Sagar, NIWC, 2019; Seamus Mallon SDLP, 2019; Bertie Ahern, Fianna Fáil Taoiseach, 2019; Gary McMichael, UDP, 2022; Malachi Curran, Labour Party of NI, 2022; Gerry Adams, Sinn Féin, 2022; Mo Mowlam, Labour Secretary of State for NI, portrait AI/machine learning, digitally processed from RTE archival media, 2023.

Installation view Martin McGuinness, The Crawford Cork, Ireland.2007.
Installation view Martin McGuinness portrait, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, 2007. Photographer Dara McGrath.

The portrait subjects were filmed for twenty minutes. The same dark red velvet curtain is used for each portrait, providing a visual parity of composition. There is only one take.

The calm filmic studies in light present a point of reflection, a moment of silence. and continuously looped in gallery presentation, and in all of them the subjects are still, seated, their gaze focused and looking out towards the audience.

Installation view of Senator George Mitchell's filmed portrait, MAG Gallery, MacEwan University, Canada, 2024.
Senator George Mitchell. Installation MAG Gallery, MacEwan University, Canada, 2024.

The lighting is purposely reminiscent of painterly use of light and compliments facial features. The camera acts as a gatherer of light. These are portraits of light painted in pixels. The shifting light, replicates the shifting subtlest of the sitters face. The substance of light and colour dissolving into image. A slight, moving image, on the flat surface of the material projected, or shining through the glass of a monitor.

John Hume. Installation view KEEPER exhibition at Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane, 2018.
John Hume. Installation KEEPER exhibition The Hugh Lane Gallery, 2018. Photographer Ros Kavanagh.
Amanda Dunsmore, Belfast, Northern Ireland, 2023.

AGREEMENT (2004-2023), Edition of 3 - Irish, UK, USA + 1AP.

AGREEMENT Edition 1, Irish Edition the collection of University of Limerick, Ireland.