Present

5 channel HD video for projection, looped, no audio
shot 2012, first produced 2013

Present was made in collaboration with Gemini Gymnastics Club, Oshawa, during an artist residency at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, and first shown at Sporobole for the Canada Summer Games as part of the Espace [Im] Media festival, Sherbrooke, Quebec, 2013. In the original work, each channel, of different lengths, is projected in portrait format, and looped separately for the duration of an exhibition. The work is also exhibited as a large-scale hanging work for one projector [1 hour loop]. A short edit [above] was made for the Glasgow Big Screen, as part of the cultural programme of the 2018 European Championships.

"The video installation Present is the most recent incarnation of Longhurst's project Other Spaces. This vast enterprise explores the rigors of training and competition to which elite gymnasts subject themselves, and the physical and emotional states they experience along the way. Elite athletes are well aware: the aesthetic of their prowess is judged by unpardoning criteria: the quality of their performance is calculated not only by degree of commitment and technical ability, but also by how immaculately they perform on a particular stage at a particular time […] Created in collaboration with the Art Gallery of Ontario during an artist residency, this pared-down installation shows side-by-side, simultaneously, five elite gymnasts. The work seeks to convey the intensity of the moment before a performance, when the gymnast, at the height of her concentration, salutes the members of the jury evaluating her. As the gymnasts prepare for action, their disciplined minds and bodies are presented to camera, revealing moments of slippage between private introspection and public display. The repetition of the same motif within the image highlights the singularity of the work's protagonists. The installation's loops and stutters in continually changing combinations evoke both the anticipation of competitive action, and the arduous training regime of the gymnast." Sporobole, 2013

Exhibited in New Order I Other Spaces, Threshold artspace, Perth Concert Hall, and on the Big Screen in George Square, Glasgow, 2018; Jo Longhurst I Present, Sporobole, Sherbrooke, Quebec, 2013

Screened at Sport, Sport, Sport, curated by Tiffany Boyle: Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image, London, 2015; British Association for Slavonic and Eastern European Studies (BASEES), Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, 2015; Transmission Gallery / Kinning Park, Glasgow, 2014

Published in AGO Artists in Residence 2011-2016, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 2017; Espace [im] Media: Arts et cultures numeriques, Sherbrooke, Quebec, 2013