Other Spaces, Mostyn, Llandudno, 16 June — 7 October 2012
The artist Jo Longhurst’s new body of work develops her interest in perfection. She turns her enquiry into notions of the ideal body to the pursuit of perfect performance, exploring the physical and emotional experiences of elite gymnasts in training and competition. Gymnastics has a long social and political history and one often entwined with an idea of aesthetic perfection. The exhibited works incorporate classic photographic portraiture, appropriated photographs, and hybrid photographic works inspired by Plato’s perfect solids, and Popova and Rodchenko’s revolutionary experiments with aesthetic forms for the construction of a new society.
The book, published to accompany the exhibition at Mostyn, Llandudno, and at Ffotogallery, Cardiff, 20 October — 26 January 2013, reveals how Longhurst worked with a body of original photographic source material, sketches and studies made as visiting artist at Heathrow Gymnastic Club and at the World Gymnastics Championships. Longhurst transforms photographic images into more sculptural works, which reference Plato and the Constructivists’ earlier attempts to define and create perfect worlds.
Works exhibited: A-Z, 215 appropriated photographs under Perspex, Pinnacle, 11 tessellating photographs, Peak, photograph in box frame, Space-Force Construction No. 1 (United States of America), Space-Force Construction No. 2 (China), Space-Force Construction No. 3 (India), 6 photographs in sculptural structures, Suspension (1), digital wall vinyl, Untitled (intervention), site-specific performance: gymnasts, geometric mats.
Catalogue: Jo Longhurst I Other Spaces: with artist’s text, foreword by Alfredo Cramerotti and David Drake, essay by Sarah Knelman, artist interview with Charlotte Cotton. Cornerhouse / Ffotogallery Publishing with Mostyn. ISBN 9781872771915