Here, Now, Studio Voltaire, London, 9 August — 10 September 2023
Curated by Lisa Slominski
Works exhibited: Here, Now, HD video for projection; Crip I, IV, V, VIII, IX, X, photographic collages in yellow box frames; and a wall vinyl artist text.
Here, Now is a new moving image work developed by Jo Longhurst as part of her multidisciplinary project Crip. This ongoing body of work considers the existence of invisible disabilities or differences through video, photography and research.
Crip poetically and critically explores the concept of 'crip time'. The theory, which lies at the intersection of feminist, disability, and queer studies, elaborates how the disabled, neurodivergent, and chronically ill encounter time and space differently from able-bodied or minded persons.
Key to the development of Here, Now was the formation of unseen collective, a group of eight women and non-binary identifying artists living with unseen disabilities and conditions. The experiences shared through one-to-one discussions, online presentations and group meetings informed and activated Longhurst’s research. The collective members are a central feature of the moving image.
In Here, Now, the history of documenting women held in psychiatric institutions is considered and challenged through explorations of agency, visibility, movement and performance. The artist’s research was informed by a series of 19th-century photographic portraits of women diagnosed as ‘hysterical’.
Importantly, Longhurst implements bindweed as a metaphor for her own disabled experience. While bindweed is considered an undesirable plant, it is known for its tenacity and characteristic of growing in an anti-clockwise direction.
From the bodily activations in Here, Now to the imagery in her Crip collage series, the metaphor of bindweed appears in subtle and overt forms.
Subtitled recording of Lisa Slominski and Jo Longhurst in conversation
Unseen collective: Helena Boateng, London Screen Academy; Alessandra Genualdo; Alice Hattrick; Jo Longhurst; Marie-Claire Nonchalente, Submit to Love Studios; Liz Orton; Natasha Trotman; and Ophir Yaron, ActionSpace.