Exhibition review, Jo Longhurst, Oriel Mostyn Gallery for Source Magazine
When Muybridge made his series of photographs examining whether a galloping horse could be airborne, he opened up a whole new approach to the use of photography as a medium to capture physical movement. In her exhibition Other Spaces this capturing of movement has clearly inspired Jo Longhurst. In her images - depicting the experiences of world-class gymnasts - we see the physical and emotional stress that the athletes' bodies and minds are placed under. We can also see a link to Longhurst's well known earlier series The Refusal which focused on the often unnatural breeding of English whippet dogs. However, while The Refusal was focused on the production of the 'ideal' dog, Other Spaces focuses on the production and presentation of an ideal body. With reference to the dates of this show (July-October 2012), the body of the gymnast was far more present in the wider cultural space than usual since, like many who went to the Oriel Mostyn over the duration of the show, I went to see this exhibition at the height of the UK summer Olympic games fervour. This no doubt had an impact on the interaction with the pieces, making it for many people an extension of the recent intense cultural and media obsession with the sporting and athletic body. Going though the small exhibition however, what became clear was that Longhurst's works are as much inspired by the past as the present.
The search for physical perfection has been a recurrent motif in modern history and it is no surprise that gymnastics, with the intense focus on the development and the maintenance of the ideal body, has become a site through which this search for perfection has often been rendered. There are many echoes of past examinations of the gymnastic body in several of the pieces shown in Other Spaces. A Modernist sensibility can be seen in the relationship between the literal shape of the works (the silhouette of the images placed together in the space) and the elements that constitute the images themselves. In A-Z we see a reframing of archival photographs from various sources presenting world famous gymnasts as they perform iconic movements such as the Azarian Cross (named after the Soviet Albert Azarian's signature move); the Korbut Flip (pioneered by Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut); and the Tsukahara (named after the Japanese gymnast Tsukahara Mitzuo). 215 small photos of these individuals are placed in clusters according to each iconic move and the placement of these images is additionally designed to reflect familiar gymnastic movements - pikes, straddles, twists and layouts - which are all rendered as silhouettes in this wall mounted installation.
Pinnacle, one of the larger installations in the series, is a floor to ceiling display using images once again to create a visual silhouette that mirrors the individual photographs. The upturned, bandaged legs and feet of the gymnasts are almost undignified and at the same time·they are a highly sculptured and powerful display of the disciplined body. Clearly reminiscent of the work of Leni Riefenstahl and the angular constructivism of early Soviet era photographers, the images engage with the social and cultural milieu in which the gymnastic body plays an important role in notions of bodily perfection.
The images are brought together in a comment not only on the physical activities that create the literal process of gymnastics, but by the surrounding cultural, historical and political narratives which have also played their role in the construction and maintenance of these bodies. The three Space-Force Construction pieces - each taking as it's focus an established or an up and-coming superpower (USA, China and India respectively) - makes clear this linkage between time and space and bodily power relations. The perfection of these gymnasts reflect the social characteristics of the society from which they come.
Peak focuses on the body of a young gymnast as she warms up. The remarkable pressure that her body is clearly under (for most of us an image of unobtainable flexibility and strength) does indeed present something akin to a higher state of physical perfection. However, unlike some notions of the perfect body that denies its literal physicality, we see the legs, muscles, bones and sinew, all working towards the production of this state.
Taken as a whole, Longhurst's images are powerful because we are never left in doubt about the sheer effort that goes into the creation and maintenance of perfection. The face of the gymnast in Suspension, one of the most striking pieces in the gallery, may be serene and unconcerned, but standing in front of the large-scale work as an audience member you become acutely aware of the physicality of this body, suspended in self propelled flight.