AN exhibition which has been 20 years in the making, has been unveiled this week in Ulster University.
AGREEMENT, created by artist Amanda Dunsmore, features silent video portraits of the 14 political figures who negotiated in the Good Friday Agreement.
Nobel Laureates John Hume and David Trimble, former Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams, and former Progressive Unionist Party leader David Ervine are among those displayed.
NI Women’s Coalition leaders Monica McWilliams and Pearl Sagar were revealed as well as the World Premiere of a new digital portrait of former Secretary of State Mo Mowlam, created using machine learning and archive video from RTÉ.
These prominent figures remain silent in this powerful installation, allowing visitors to the exhibit to consider their own position on the last 25 years.
Formidable activist Monica McWilliams at Mo Mowlam portrait
“They are portraits in light and they are silent. They are familiar figures, and we believe we know them because we encounter them all the time,” said exhibition artist and creator Amanda Dunsmore.
“It’s the launching of ten portraits which have never been shown and Mo Mowlam’s portrait which is created from technology that is used in Hollywood. Her portrait is similar, all of them have the red velvet background. Her portrait is made from over 30 years of footage from the RTÉ archive.”
Amanda was an Artist in Residence in the Maze Prison during the Good Friday Agreement talks.
“I, like everybody else, was watching TV and listening to these individuals talking to us, at us and parting information.
“What I am doing here is bringing the otherside of those conversations. It’s the silence of the individuals, you’re getting this otherside of this individual that you believe you understand."
Artist Amanda Dunsmore created the 14 portraits displayed in AGREEMENT exhibit
Taking over 20 years to create, Amanda began with David Ervine's portrait in 2004.
“When you start something, you often see if you can finish it. When I was an Artist in Residence at the Maze Prison, Mo Mowlam went in to talk to the loyalist prisoners because they were pulling out of talks. She went in and talked to them and to the republican prisoners as well and she brought them back to the table.”
The special three-screen installation of the artwork is open to the public from Saturday 15 April until Thursday 20 April at the Atrium in Ulster University Belfast Campus.
An associated exhibition entitled MEMENTO – AGREEMENT is on show until 22 May at Ulster University Art Gallery. A print edition series of artworks, will feature 14 mementoes, including hand-drawn portraits, of those co-signatories, past and present, as Amanda revisits her video portraits two decades on.
