Interview: George Henry Longly
George Henry Longly is the recipient artist of Shoreditch Arts Club’s next moving image commission. His video works ISIT (Zero G), ISIT (Deep Sea), and We All Love Your Life, are curated by the club’s long-time collaborators Tony Tremlett and Ruth Waters, and will be shown on our prominent screens throughout April, coexisting with the artist’s other physical works in the space.
Still from ISIT (Zero G), 2023
Point Nemo, 2023. Photography by Simon Veres AEPH
Ahead of the official opening evening of Longly’s new moving image commission on May 23rd, the artist tells us about himself and his practice, giving us a glimpse of what we can expect come May…
SAC: George, we are very excited to welcome you as our Spring 2024 moving image commission recipient. Could you tell us briefly about your practice, including any previous shows you’ve done?
GHL: My creative process is triggered by contexts that are completely encompassing, often places that the body needs infrastructure to visit. I work across mediums including sculpture, painting, installation, curation, design, sound, and video. Recent exhibitions include “Microgravities” at Nicoletti, “Benthos” at Galerie Kandlhofer, “The Tissue Equivalent” at Palais de Tokyo, “Toxungenous Activities” at Fiorucci Art Trust, and “We All Love Your Life” at Red Bull Arts, New York. My work has also been featured in group exhibitions at Nottingham Contemporary, Kunsthal Aarhus, ICA London, South London Gallery and Lisson Gallery.
In the exhibition ‘Microgravities”, I looked at how our perception of space is framed through a combination of cinema and video–a mix of fantasy and scientific data. Conversely, my exhibition “The Tissue Equivalent”, played out in the extreme pressure of the deep sea.
Still from We All Love Your Life, 2016
The interrelation between subject matter and scale in your video works is very compelling. Would you mind telling us about why and how they come together?
The expansive scale of space and extraterrestrial forces serves as a profound inspiration for my work, fuelling a creative impulse and desire to experience what can only be explored through the metaphysical. In a recent series, painted reliefs embody ‘visions’ that manifest impossible scale and movement within the confines of an artwork.
I think about existential questions and our relationship to the universe, tracing a historical trajectory from ancient stargazing cultures, through spiritualism and religion, to the present-day popularity of astrology and the influence of hyper-online living. My interest lies in understanding how these ideologies shape culture, our lives and interpersonal connections.
I’m intrigued by subcultures and their relationship to the mainstream and question the role of the establishment in how we view, regulate and control culture. By incorporating subject matter, materials, and contexts inspired by forces like the deep sea, zero gravity, geology, and time, I try to address some of the contemporary conditions shaping artistic production and burnout.
What does your creative process typically look like?
My creative process begins with drawing coordinates and streamlining forms into essential nodes. This contemplative approach aligns with my interest in celestial bodies, industrial processes, and my approach to making sculpture and exhibitions. The constellations in my work, often manifested as highly polished ball bearings, disrupt a clear visual reading, prompting viewers to peer through the artwork, simultaneously seeing versions of themselves reflected back.
Still from ISIT (Deepsea), 2023
And finally, how has your work taken shape outside its original medium?
In 2016, I collaborated with Prof. Victor Buchli on the “We All Love Your Life” exhibition and publication at Red Bull Arts in NYC that was set in a fictional space station. I contributed to ETHNO-ISS, a collaborative research project led by Victor, between UCL and the European Space Agency that is building an ethnography of the International Space Station. This collaboration led to a patch that I designed being sent to space, residing on the ISS before returning to Earth, creating a context to contemplate the effects of zero gravity and low-earth orbit, where conventional modes of analysis are disrupted, and unknown realities emerge.
