Jo Longhurst

Other Spaces

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Other Spaces is a collection of artworks including photographs, body scans, sculptural installations, performance, video, and fabric works.

Other Spaces develops Longhurst’s interest in cultural ideas of Perfection, exploring the physical and psychological experiences of elite gymnasts in training and competition. Inspired by Plato’s Perfect solids and Popova & Rodchenko’s revolutionary experiments with aesthetic forms, Longhurst works with appropriated photographs as well as her own images, to create hybrid works which reference earlier attempts to define and create Perfect worlds. The project started in 2008 and continues to evolve. Not all works are shown here.

The 2012 book Jo Longhurst / Other Spaces includes an essay by Sara Knelman and an interview with Charlotte Cotton. It is designed by Smith [now GOST] and published by Ffotogallery in partnership with Mostyn.

Other Spaces has been made possible through the generous support of AIMIA; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Arts Council England; Arts Council Wales; British Council; Festival 2018; European Centre for Photographic Research; Ffotogallery; Gemini Gymnastics, Oshawa; John Kobal Foundation; Heathrow Gymnastic Club; Leverhulme Trust; Mostyn; National Media Museum, Bradford; Pavilion, Leeds; The Photographers’ Gallery; Vila Olímpica da Mangueira, Rio de Janeiro; Whitechapel Gallery; and the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.

To watch a video of Jo Longhurst in conversation with Sarah Knelman at Other Spaces, Mostyn please click HERE.

About the Artist

Artist Website

Jo Longhurst is best known for her collaborative works with show dogs and gymnasts, which gently probe how cultural ideas of perfection shape personal and national identities, as well as social and political systems.

Longhurst is a graduate of the Royal College of Art, London. Her work is held in public and private collections and is exhibited internationally. In 2012 she was awarded the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Grange Prize (now the AIMIA/AGO Photography Prize), Canada’s highest award for excellence in international photography. In 2015 she worked with a troupe of rhythmic gymnasts in the Mangueira favela, Rio de Janeiro, exploring the girls’ drive to perfect their acrobatic dance moves, and developed a new body-scanning technique to visualize movement. She was commissioned to make 4 new works for the Cultural Programme of the 2018 European Sports Championships in Glasgow & Perth, including wall vinyls, flags and performance fabrics developed from these body scans. In 2020 this work was shortlisted for the SpallArt Prize, hosted by the Salzburger Kunstverein. Her work has won many other awards including the National Media Museum Photography Bursary; Pavilion Commission; and selection for Bloomberg New Contemporaries and the Discovery Award, Arles. She currently lives and works in London.