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. Her contextual portraits evolve through long periods of research and the work is often presented as a series of extensive socio-political and historical projects; through sculptural, video and drawing based exhibitions. Central to Dunsmore's art practice is an exploration of the potential of future memory; the long-term implications of socio-political art making and the legacy of visual parity in portraiture.

The recently completed the major artwork AGREEMENT (2004 - 2023), features 14 video portraits of community and political leaders behind the Belfast Good Friday Agreement, sitting in silence; a special 3-screen presentation toured to five community venues across Northern Ireland over 2023/GFA25. In 2024, and for the first time, this work will be presented one portrait each week over the fourteen-week run of an exhibition at the Mitchell Art Gallery, Canada. With the work taking weekly visits for over three months to watch in its entirety, this presentation of AGREEMENT invites further consideration of the labour of peace processes. 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 / Curator, Mitchell Art Gallery, MacEwan University, Edmonton, Canada