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ARTSDESK CONFLICT RESOLUTION Project Arts Centre
rediscovery of its past brings Sandra Johnson back to Dublin for Wait it out, a feminist reflection on the Northern Irish conflict regarding the legacy of violence and peace as unfinished. words Maisie Linford Sandra Johnson first exhibited in the Project Arts Centre in 1998, the year the Good Friday Agreement was signed. The offsite piece in the now derelict Ormond Hotel was an exploration of the previous occupier of her hotel room. The work, at least on the surface, was completely removed from the political context she had come from. Johnson describes herself as “an escapologist” having escaped from Northern Ireland and attempting to inconspicuously blend into Dublin. Now, Johnson is proud to call herself a Northern Irish artist, consciously neither Irish or British. Wait it Out negotiates personal and historical narratives in relation to the reverberation of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland and reflects upon the uncertain early days of the peace process and the climate of unease which motivated Johnson to relocate to Dublin in 1997. The work is split into two main parts Overprint and That Apart. Overprint builds on material gathered for Something You May Later Rely On (2004) which include unedited archival news footage and personal videos connected to the conflict in Northern Ireland with individuals from the peace movement. Specifically, the voice of Mairead Corrigan Maguire, who founded The Peace People and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976. Johnson argues this prompted an unfair masculine interrogation and paramilitary undermining of the Peace People’s objectives. This is combined with footage made by Johnson after she experienced a sectarian attack and was left violated, angry and agoraphobic, revisiting the site using the words of Maguire for empowerment. That Apart Johnson describes as a “hybrid collaboration” with moving image artist Richard Ashrowan. It is neither performance nor film. Johnson uses her body in the present 70