Space-Force Constructions

Space-Force Construction No. 1 (United States of America), Space-Force Construction No. 2 (China), Space-Force Construction No. 3 (India)

6 photographs under Perspex set in powder-coated aluminium structures
each 16" x 22" (40.6cm x 60.9cm) : installation dimensions variable
shot 2009, produced 2012

Photographs of competing gymnasts from Superpower countries are incorporated into geometric sculptural structures, which reference Luibov Popova and Aleksandr Rodchenko's revolutionary work of the 1920s. The dynamic frameworks, powder-coated in red, yellow and black, reflect both the colour of the respective gymnast's leotards, and the optimism of Rodchenko's 1923 painted monochromes Pure Red Colour, Pure Yellow Colour, Pure Blue Colour (the blue pigment, now black with age). Longhurst's skewed frameworks are hung at various heights, extending the images into the gallery space. The viewer is confronted by the stillness of the inset images, which reveal delicate, indeterminate moments of performance, where celebrity gymnasts are reduced to unidentifiable individuals in images alien to the slick language of the contemporary sports photographer. The work evokes modernist visions of a perfectible society, but is constructed from a contemporary position with little nostalgia for what has gone before.

Exhibited in New Order I Other Spaces, Kelvin Hall Ballroom, Glasgow, as part of the cultural programme for the Glasgow 2018 European Championships; Other Spaces, Titanic Belfast, 2016; Still, Solent Showcase, 2013-14; Other Spaces, Ffotogallery, Penarth, 2012-13; Other Spaces, Mostyn, Llandudno, 2012

Published in On Perfection: An Artists' Symposium, Intellect Books, 2013; Other Spaces, Ffotogallery with Mostyn, 2012