AGREEMENT (2004 - 2023) is a unique collection 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 MacWilllaims in front of her filmed portriat, Ulster University, Belfast. April, 2023. Photographer Darren Kidd

AGREEMENT features, in order of filming : David Ervine, Progressive Unionist Party, filmed in Northern Visions community television studio (NVTV), Belfast, Northern Ireland, 2004; John Alderdice, Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, filmed at his home in Belfast, Northern Ireland, 2005; Martin McGuinness, Sinn Féin, filmed in the Void Gallery, Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland, 2005; John Hume, Social Democratic and Labour Party, filmed in the Void Gallery, Derry/Londonderry, 2005, Northern Ireland; David Trimble (by then Lord Trimble), Ulster Unionist Party, filmed in Seapatrick Parish Church Hall, Banbridge, Co. Down, Northern Ireland, 2017; Senator George Mitchell, United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland, filmed in the Shelbourne hotel, Dublin, Ireland, 2018; Monica McWilliams, Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition, filmed in NVTV, Belfast, Northern Ireland, 2005/2019; Pearl Sagar, Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition, filmed in NVTV, Belfast, Northern Ireland, 2019; Seamus Mallon Social Democratic and Labour Party, filmed in Markethill, Armagh, Northern Ireland, 2019; Bertie Ahern, Fianna Fáil Taoiseach, filmed in Drumcondra, Dublin, Ireland, 2019. Gary McMichael, Ulster Democratic Party, filmed in NVTV, Belfast, Northern Ireland, 2022; Malachi Curran, Labour Party of Northern Ireland, filmed in NVTV, Belfast, Northern Ireland, 2022. Gerry Adams, Sinn Féin, filmed in NVTV, Belfast, Northern Ireland, 2022. Mo Mowlam, Labour Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, made by AI/machine learning, digitally processed from RTE archival media footage, 2023.

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

The portraits are filmed in 4:3. The same dark red velvet curtain is used for each portrait, providing a visual parity of composition. There is only one take. 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.

The calm filmic studies in light present a point of reflection, a moment of silence. The portraits are silent, 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.

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

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