Cocker Spaniel and Other Tools For International Understanding, Kunsthalle Zu Kiel

Cocker Spaniel and Other Tools for International Understanding, Kunsthalle zu Kiel, 26 October 2009 – 10 January 2010; Ursula Blickle Foundation, Kraichtal-Unterowisheim, 6 September – 11 October 2009

Curated by Dr Dirk Luckow, the exhibition addresses the complexity of the history and the character of the dog with a special focus on contemporary art. It examines the complex significance of the dog as a pedigree pet, hunting hound, and work animal. The works on display give a multifaceted and almost poetic look at the relationship between man and dog and thus also the role and interpretation of the dog in art. Longhurst gave the closing talk of the exhibition with a personal response to other artworks.

Artists: Eija-Lisa Ahtila, Christop Amberger, Carl Frederik Bartsh, Georg Baselitz, Cosima von Bonin, Pierre Bonnard, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Martin Eder, Tracey Emin, Valie Export/ Peter Weibel, Erik Fischl, Lucian Freud, Paul Garrin, Ulrich Gebert, Anthony Gormley, Tue Greenfort, Johann Friedrich Grooth, Thomas Grünfeld, Wenzel Hablik, Duane Hanson, Jochem Hendriks, David Hockney, Jörg Immendorff, Alfred Jacquemart, Anna Jermolaewa, Marta Klonowska, Oleg Kulik, Annika Larsson, Max Liebermann, Jo Longhurst, Nicolaes Maes, Peter Nagel, Constantin Netscher, Jean-Baptiste Oudry, Martin Parr, Diego Perrone, Cathie Pilkington, Christian Rohlfs, Bojan Šarcevic, Erik Schmidt, Norbert Schwontkowski, Frans Snyders, Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, Rosemary Trockel, Wilhelm Trübner, Vladimir Tyulkin, Lucie Valore, William Wegman, Hans Wimmer, Johannes Eduard Wolff, and Santiago Ydáñez.

Work exhibited: Twelve dogs, Twelve bitches, 24 photographs on aluminium; I know what you’re thinking, 4 photographs on mdf

Catalogue: [in German] Cocker Spaniel and Other Tools for International Understanding, Kunsthalle zu Kiel and Ursula Blickle Foundation, edited by DIrk Luckow, including contextual essays by Katharina von der Leyen, Feridun Zaimoglu, Julia Schönfeld, Wolfgang Wipperman, Dörte Zbikowski, Ingo Schulze, and Erika Billeter: Dumont, Köln ISBN 978-3-8321-9267-9

Pavilion Commissions, National Media Museum

New Works: Pavilion Commissions 2008, National Media Museum, Bradford, 13 September 2008 — 25 January 2009

Selectors: Stefanie Braun and Clare Grafik, The Photographers’ Gallery; Greg Hobson, National Media Museum; Max Khandola, photographer; Anna Reid, Pavilion.

The exhibition features five new commissions by photographers Peter Ainsworth, Tess Hurrell, Jo Longhurst, Moira Lovell and Kevin Newark. The projects explore varied subjects and demonstrate the range of exciting talent working in the UK today.

Work exhibited A-Z, 215 appropriated photographs on mdf.

Catalogue: Pavilion Commissions Programme 2008, edited by Ruth Haycock, with texts by Charles Danby, Jennifer Doyle, Mark Durden and Jonathan Whitehall: Pavilion, Leeds ISBN 9780954477554

Twelve Dogs, Twelve Bitches, Pavilion

Twelve Dogs, Twelve Bitches, Pavilion, Leeds, 13 September — 21 November 2008

Over several years Jo Longhurst worked with British Whippet breeders, including several renowned Yorkshire kennels, photographing their dogs by bloodline, exploring their obessive quest for the perfect dog. Twelve Dogs, Twelve Bitches is the establishing piece of an extensive body of work, The Refusal, which foregrounds the intimate relationship between human and animal, and the increasing significance of photographic technologies in the develpment of human identity.

Part of Ways of Looking: photography and new media in Leeds and Bradford.

Work exhibited: Twelve Dogs, Twelve Bitches

The Refusal, Museum Folkwang

The Refusal, Museum Folkwang, Essen, 5 April — 15 June 2008

Solo exhibition, curated by Ute Eskildsen.

‘We react differently to portraits of people than to portraits of animals. Why and in what way? These are the questions the viewer is confronted with when standing before Longhurst’s works.... Despite their utter perfection, they unnerve the viewer through the polarity of rational documentation and emotional-situational depiction” Ute Eskildsen.

Work exhibited Twelve Dogs, Twelve Bitches, 24 photographs on aluminium, Breed, 4 photographs on aluminium, I Know What You’re Thinking, 4 photographs on mdf, The Queen’s Stud, stereoscopic print with glasses,  Vincent, 4 photographs on aluminium,  Sighthound, stereoscopic installation, At Home, 3 photographs on aluminium, It’s All in My Mind, 2 photographs on aluminium, Untitled I, II, III, and Portrait of a Dog, 4 photographs on aluminium,  The Refusal (Part I), photograph in box frame, The Refusal (Part II), 3 photographs on aluminium, The Refusal (Part III), 6 photographs on aluminium,  The Decisive Moment, HD video for monitor.

Installation views Heiko Tiemann

Jo Longhurst I The Refusal, Royal College of Art

Jo Longhurst I The Refusal, Royal College of Art, London 9 — 17 January 2008

Viva exhibition for PhD Perfectibility: the whippet as a mode of enquiry.

Work exhibited Twelve Dogs, Twelve Bitches, 24 photographs on aluminium, Breed, 4 photographs on aluminium, I Know What You’re Thinking, 4 photographs on mdf, The Queen’s Stud, stereoscopic print with glasses, Sighthound, stereoscopic installation, It’s All in My Mind, 2 photographs on aluminium, Portrait of a Dog, photograph on aluminium, The Refusal (Part I), photograph on aluminium, The Refusal (Part II), 3 photographs on aluminium, The Refusal (Part III), 6 photographs on aluminium, The Decisive Moment, HD video for monitor.

To The Dogs, Presentation House Gallery

To the Dogs, Presentation House Gallery (now The Polygon Gallery), Vancouver, 30 June — 5 August 2007 

Artists: Shelby Lee Adams, Francis Alys, Miguel Rio Branco, Jon Divola, Elliot Erwitt, Shari Hatt, Dave Heath, Lewis Hine, Marc Joseph, Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Herbert List, Jo Longhurst, Eadweard Muybridge, Martin Parr, Lise Sarfati, David Seymour, Giorgio Sommer, Chris Steele-Perkins, Nina Raginsky, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Larry Towell, William Wegman.

Catalogue: To the Dogs

The exhibition considers how society has shaped, and is shaped by, the “companion species” known as dog. As Gertrude Stein wrote in 1935 “I am I because my little dog knows me.” Included in the show are classic images, contemporary art works, and vernacular portraits which are augmented by historic photographs culled from several local archives. Together these pictures reveal how dogs have remained an enduring metaphor and potent symbol in human history, an integral part of everyday life, and a favourite subject of the camera. To the Dogs looks at the diverse ways that dogs as domestic pets and wilder animals are part of society as friends, helpers, labourers, and even performers. The exhibition includes photography of dog locomotion such as Edweard Muybridge’s stop action motion studies from the late nineteenth century to John Divola’s recent series Dogs Chasing My Car in the Desert. There are many versions of “man and his best friend” as expressed in famous photographs of Jacques-Henri Lartigue and Herbert List, through to William Wegman’s collaborative exercises with his Weimeraners performing in a variety of guises. The stray dog and wolf are vividly portrayed in the conceptual work of Hiroshi Sugimoto and Francis Alÿs, and the documentary approaches of Magnum photographers Elliott Erwitt, Chris Steele-Perkins, and Miquel Rio Branco.

Work exhibited Breed, 4 photographs on aluminium

Photos: Presentation House Gallery

Descent, MAC Birmingham

Descent, MAC, Birmingham, 1 April — 29 May 2005

Solo exhibition curated by Alex Boyd.

Work exhibited Twelve dogs, twelve bitches, 24 photographs on aluminium, Breed, 4 photographs on aluminium, Shaun & Monique, 2 photographs on mdf, Sighthound, stereoscopic installation, At Home, 3 photographs on aluminium, It’s All in My Mind, 2 photographs on aluminium.

Breed, Studio 1.1

Breed, Studio 1.1, London, 4 February — 6 March 2005

Solo exhibition, curated by Keran James

“Liberated from the dark edges of the painted allegories of Reynolds, whose dogs deserve better treatment, (rather as Gainsborough’s dogs from ‘Bumper’ onwards obtain equal attention from the artist and us), here in ‘Breed’ dogs, bred, and in a sense defined by people (owners) begin to define themselves.” Keran James.

Work exhibited Breed, 4 photographs on aluminium, Saffi and Iris, 2 photographs on mdf, Untitled (Dreamwork), photograph on aluminium

Exhibition text

Future Face, Science Museum

Future Face, Wellcome Gallery, Science Museum, London, 1 October 2004 — 13 February 2005; National Museum of Natural Science, Taichung, Taiwan, July — December 2005

A Wellcome Trust touring exhibition, curated by Sandra Kemp.

Creatively juxtaposing historical and contemporary material; art, science and technology, Future Face explores the physical make-up of the face and the myriad ways it has been depicted and analysed, altered and reconstructed from pre-history to the present. The exhibition juxtaposes artworks with objects, images and interactive exhibits from the fields of physiognomy, psychology, anatomy, medcine and forensic science.

Artists: Aziz + Cucher, Erica Baum, Alphonse Bertillon, Nancy Burson, Chris Cunningham, Chris Dorley-Brown, Francis Galton, Pierre Hughe and Philippe Pareno, Catheerine Ikam/Loui Fléri, Gerhard Lange, Daniel Lee, Jo Longhurst, Peter Menzel, Franz Xavier Messerschmidt, Michael Najjar, Steven Pollack, Andres Serrano, and others. The Taiwan exhibition Facing DIfference [not shown], was expanded to include works from South East Asian collections and artists.

Catalogues: Future Face: Image, Identity, Innovation, Profile Books, London, 2004, ISBN 1 86197 768 9; Interactive CD-ROM, 2004, ISBN 1 84129 053X; Future Face, National Science & Technology Museum, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, 2006, ISBN 13 978-986-00-6734-7 ISBN 10:986-00-6734-1, including artist’s texts ‘What a dog might tell us’

Work exhibited, Terence, photograph on mdf, from the series, Terence, Vincent, Saffi, Iris, Shaun & Monnique.