MEMENTO – AGREEMENT is a series of 14 artworks, developed to understand the process and journey related to embodied interactions, that occurred within the filming and production, of 14 portraits of signatories of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement in the artwork AGREEMENT.
Dunsmore revisits each of the filming sittings and creates from her memories ‘mementos’ in a composition of three elements; a drawn portrait, a text piece and a map of: David Ervine, Progressive Unionist Party, 2004; Lord Alderdice, Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, 2005; Martin McGuinness, Sinn Féin, 2005; John Hume, Social Democratic and Labour Party, 2005; David Trimble, Ulster Unionist Party, 2017; Senator George Mitchell, United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland, 2018; Monica McWilliams, Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition, 2005/2019; Pearl Sagar, Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition, 2019; Seamus Mallon, Social Democratic and Labour Party, 2019; Bertie Ahern, Fianna Fáil Taoiseach, 2019. Gary McMichael, Ulster Democratic Party, 2022; Malachi Curran, Labour Party of Northern Ireland, 2022; Gerry Adams, Sinn Féin, 2022. Created by machine learning, digitally processed from RTE archival media footage; Mo Mowlam, Labour Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, 2023.
The portraits are drawings, digitally printed on tracing paper. The text shares memories of conversations, with filmed portrait subjects and observations around contexts. Copper plate etchings, map each encounter and depict geographic locations and the journeys of artist and subject, to the site of filming. These three elements together create a ‘memento’ of each individual video portrait subject that Dunsmore filmed between 2004 and 2023.
MEMENTO – AGREEMENT Copper etching maps, chine colle on Kitikata paper typed text, digital printed tracing paper drawings on Arches Velin Blanc 250g paper. Limited Box Edition of 10. + 2 AP. Parallel Editions. Photography Simon Mills.