Amanda Dunsmore - Geo-Political Cheese & Onion Crisps (2026)

Artist: Amanda Dunsmore 

Geo-Political Cheese & Onion Crisps - 250 mm x 300 mm, archival linen tape, Neutral pH PVA adhesive, Canson Etching Ragpaper 400 × 600 mm unframed 

Born in England, Amanda Dunsmore has lived and worked in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland since the late 1980s. Dunsmore creates contextual sociopolitical portraits using various media and materials, including photography, video, sound, and drawing. An example of this is Keeper, an extensive 30-year project of multiple exhibitions and bodies of artwork examining Northern Ireland's conflict, peace process, and its aftermath. In 2023, she completed the major body of work, AGREEMENT (2004 – 2023), comprising silent, moving-image filmed portraits of 14 signatories of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement.

Geo-Political Cheese & Onion Crisps emerged from a project called Before the Referendums (2023 - ongoing), in which Dunsmore makes weekly drawings exploring the socio-political implications and preparations for referendums on a United Ireland.

Tayto was established in the Republic of Ireland by Joe ‘Spud’ Murphy in 1954 and is credited with inventing the first cheese and onion-flavoured crisps. Tayto Northern Ireland (NI) Cheese & Onion crisps was founded by Thomas Hutchinson in 1956 after ‘Spud’ Murphy sold the UK Tayto license to Mr Hutchinson. Although both are called Tayto, the crisps differ slightly in taste: people from Northern Ireland (with no denominational preferences) generally prefer Tayto Cheese & Onion NI, while people from the Republic of Ireland mostly prefer Joe ‘Spud’ Murphy’s Tayto Cheese & Onion. Both have strong symbolic and cultural resonance across partitioned Ireland.

When making Geo-Political Cheese & Onion Crisps, Dunsmore conducts significant cross-community culinary research, while reflecting on her fondness for potato crisps of all persuasions.*

*In some countries, ‘crisps’ are known as ‘chips.’3