Kepler developed the Platonic solid model of the solar system in Mysterium Cosmographicum (1596) to explain the relative distances of the planets from the Sun to the Copernican System.

Above Lichtdom, (Cathedral of Light): Party Rally, Nurenberg 1937Opposite Aleksander Rodchenko Popova’s Studio 1924

Aleksandr Rodchenko Pure Red Colour, Pure Yellow Colour, Pure Blue Colour 1921

J O L O N G H U R S T | O T H E R S P A C E S

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Performance, whether in sport or art, is culture bound. It remains intrinsically tied to the specificity of its context, situation or circumstance. In the disciplined and competitive world of international gymnastics, performers operate within a highly codified system governed by particular cultural rules and values, relationships and meanings, a system which in turn is informed by the wider social and political environment in which sporting events take place. An ideal performance at a top level gymnastics event goes beyond demonstrating that one is amongst the best physically trained and mentally prepared competitors and performing at the highest level on the day. A great performance before an international audience is also emblematic of state identity and its desire to assert supremacy. In that sense a medal winning performance acts as a powerful metaphor for national wellbeing.

Other Spaces is a new body of work by the artist Jo Longhurst. It develops her interest in the concept of Perfection. The project has evolved from her previous work, The Refusal, a study of the British Whippet with a focus on conventions of portraiture, perfect body form, and the contradictory controlling/ loving relationship between human and dog. She has now switched her enquiry from the ideal body to the perfect performance, exploring the physical and emotional experiences of elite gymnasts in training and competition.

Other Spaces incorporates classic photographic portraiture, appropriated photographs and hybrid photographic/installation works inspired by Plato’s perfect solids, and Popova and Rodchenko’s revolutionary experiments with aesthetic forms for the construction of a new, Utopian society. Paying great attention to detail in how the works are configured in relation to each other in the presentational space of the gallery, Longhurst also alludes to Bauhaus theories on plane geometry and the way a performer’s body moves within a spatial linear web of intersecting straight, diagonal and curved lines. The artist recognises that the architectural space of the gallery itself is an important determinant of visual unity and harmony.

Working with a body of original photographic source material, sketches and studies made as visiting artist at Heathrow Gymnastics Club and the World Gymnastics Championships, Longhurst has transformed photographic images into more sculptural works which reference Plato and the Constructivists' earlier attempts to define and create perfect worlds. The artist explores the long social and political history of competitive gymnastics, and how an iconography of classic moves and gestures has developed over the years and is represented photographically. By transposing this visual taxonomy of perfection in gymnastics into a ten metre long installation along the gallery wall, Longhurst draws attention to specific individuals and their role in the evolution of gymnastics. She reveals how

Foreword

shifts in the political landscape and cultural context of the sport, and in the use of photographic media to represent its development, contribute to the visual language on which the discipline is built.

Contrasting these idealised representations of gymnastic poses with close cropped, degraded and temporally dislocated images of young gymnasts legs and bodies, suspended in mid-air whilst they turn somersaults or perform other movements, Longhurst also questions the idea of human perfectibility. In showing the flesh coloured bandages and spray on skin, she highlights the stress that competitive performance places on the mind and body, offering a subtle critique of the relentless and physically demanding training that elite young gymnasts undergo as they are ‘hot housed’ for international competition.

Ffotogallery and MOSTYN are delighted to be collaborating with the artist in the production of the Other Spaces exhibition and this publication. As two leading visual art organisations in Wales, it is our aim to present work that opens up a dialogue with our audiences about contemporary art and its relationship to the wider social, cultural and political context in which artists and curators are working. We are indebted to the artist, and the many individuals and institutions who have supported the development and realisation of the project, in particular Arts Council England, the Arts Council of Wales, John Kobal Foundation, Leverhulme Trust, National Media Museum, Pavilion and the European Centre for Photographic Research, University of Wales, Newport.

David Drake, Director, Ffotogallery

Alfredo Cramerotti, Director, MOSTYN

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I d o n ’ t b e l I e v e I n p e r f e c t I o n . I a c h I e v e d I t u n d e r a c e r t a I n s y s t e m , b u t t h e r e w a s p l e n t y o f r o o m f o r d e v e l o p I n g t h a t s y s t e m .

Nadia Comaneci (first perfect 10 score in Olympic history, Montreal 1976)

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Thank you to the many people who helped make this book and exhibition possible:

Alfredo Cramerotti and David Drake

Peter Ainsworth, Martin Barlow, Tom Barton, Pierre Brahm, Stefanie Braun, Zelda Cheatle, Ronnie Close, Charlotte Cotton, Simon Crocker, Lin Cummins, Richard Cynan Jones, Liam Devlin, Mark Durden, Ute Eskildsen, Joan Fothergill, Mark Foxwell, Clare Grafik, Catherine Grant, Sian Green, Terry Greenwood, Ruth Haycock, Greg Hobson, Gerallt Hughes, Mark Hughes, Tess Hurrell, James Hyman, Andrea Jespersen, Max Kandola, Sara Knelman, Richard Law and all at Darbyshire, Alastair Levy, Moira Lovell, Christina Mackie, Nina Miall, Volker Minkus, Les Monaghan, Anna Reid, Nia Roberts, Justine Schuster, David Smith, Stuart Smith, Eva Stenram, Ben Tufnell, Lynn Turner, Paul Walker, Stuart Whipps, Jonathan Whitehall, Sarah Williams, Michael G Wilson, Ben Woodeson and all at Ffotogallery and MOSTYN

Special thanks to Tim Peake at British Gymnastics; Sarah Barnett, Bryony Buckley, Dilys Buckley, Lucy Greenman and Ellie Hill of Bangor Gymnastics Club; Mimi Buckley; Vincent and Michelle Walduck and the elite squad at Heathrow Gymnastics Club: Danusia Francis, Nicole Hibbert, Loriah James, Savannah Lawrence, Charlotte Linsley, Harriet Lymer-Smith, Laura Mitchell, Jojo Perryman, Rebekah Wiltshire, Rebecca Wing, and Keshia Wood

And, of course, Brendan Walker

Acknowledgements

Charlotte Cotton is a writer and curator. Her previous positions include Curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Head of Programming at The Photographers’ Gallery, and Head of the Wallis Annenberg Department of Photography at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She is the author of The Photograph as Contemporary Art, and founder of wordswithoutpictures.org and EitherAnd.org. Recent projects include the Experimental Section of the 2012 Krakow Photomonth, and curation of the main exhibition for the 2012 Daegu Photo Biennale in South Korea.

Sara Knelman is a writer and curator based in London. She was Curator of Contemporary Art (2006-2009) at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Canada, has been a juror and curator for the Magenta Foundation’s Flash Forward prize for emerging photographers, and is a jury member for the 2012 Grange Prize for contemporary photography. Currently a PhD candidate at the Courtauld Institute of Art researching photographic exhibition and curation in the art museum, she is the Talks Programmer at The Photographers’ Gallery. She writes regularly about contemporary art for Daily Serving.

Jo Longhurst is an artist who works with lens-based processes, performance and installation. She studied Russian with Politics at the University of Leeds, and Photography & Multimedia at the University of Westminster. In 2008 she graduated from the Royal College of Art with a PhD by Practice and quickly gained international recognition.

Exhibitions include The Worldly House, Documenta 13, Kassel; Photography in Britain since 2000, Krakow Photomonth; Cocker Spaniel and Other Tools for International Understanding, Kunsthalle zu Kiel and Ursula Blickle Foundation; Becoming Animal, Becoming Human, NKGB, Berlin; The Animal Gaze, Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery; New Works: Pavilion Commissions, National Media Museum, Bradford; New Contemporaries 2008, Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art; The Refusal, Museum Folkwang, Essen, To the Dogs, Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver; and Twelve Dogs, Twelve Bitches, Discovery Award, Rencontres d’Arles, France. Her work is held in both public and private collections.

Biographies

other spaces Jo longhurst

Published by Ffotogallery Wales LimitedFfotogallery, c/o Chapter Market Road, Cardiff CF5 1QE

In partnership with MOSTYN, Llandudno

ISBN-13: 978 1 872771 91 5

Published August 2012

Unless otherwise stated, all images © Jo LonghurstAll text © the authors 2012

Design by SMITHJustine Schusterwww.smith-design.com

Printed in Italy by EBS

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher.

The texts are available for download in Welsh at www.ffotogallery.org and can also be accessed using the following QR code

Founda

tion

Other Spaces has been made possible through the additional generous support of Arts Council England, Arts Council of Wales, John Kobal Foundation, Leverhulme Trust, National Media Museum, Pavilion, and the European Centre for Photographic Research, University of Wales, Newport