The Hands of History
After the Good Friday Agreement 1998, I created an exhibition to explore the Agreement and its context, titled: The Hands of History. This exhibition opened in 2002 in Belfast. The central installation piece was the bronze hand casts of those political leaders who negotiated the Agreement. In 2017 I received an invitation from the University of Liverpool and The Victoria Gallery and Museum, Liverpool, to exhibit on the 20th anniversary of the Agreement. For this exhibition the goal is to re-enact and extend the Hands of History with at least 20 additional new hand casts plus other new art works, especially two new significant audio-visual installation pieces. These new installations are composed of significant artefacts, The Keys of Crumlin Road Prison, and an original Internee ‘prison-made’ escape Grappling Hook, recovered from Maze Prison. The Grappling Hook was constructed by internees and had stayed hidden in the Internment camp also known as ‘The Cages’ Long Kesh for 30 years
The original Good Friday Hands of History sculpture consists of hand casts of: David Trimble, UUP, Gerry Adams SF, John Hume SDLP, Malachy Curran NILP, Monica McWilliams NIWC, David Irvin PUP, Gary McMicheal UDP, Sean Neeson ALL. The British Government is represented by Mo Mowlam the then Secretary of State. The new Hands of History +20 sculpture is comprised of local and leading Irish, British and international figures who have played a major role in the drive for peace.