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George Henry Longly – BENTHOS

Gallery Kandlhofer is pleased to present Benthos – New and recent work by GHL with Cookies and Nelson Beer. For the first time exhibiting in Austria this show brings together works by George Henry Longly from 2012 until the present day and emphasises his multifaceted artistic practice through a variety of media. The exhibition features sculpture, furniture and video, highlighting significant shows throughout the artist’s career. Benthos intermixes the exhibitions We all love your life at Red Bull Arts NY (2016) and The Tissue Equivalent at the Palais de Tokyo (2018) with recent work, collaborations with the Rotterdam-based design collective Cookies as well as Swiss musician, producer and artist Nelson Beer.

In Benthos Longly situates the work in the polemic extremes of the seabed and the space station. The intense pressure of the deep sea and vacuum of space sit next to each other in the same exhibition and provide a context for the artist ́s expansive practice. Although these two settings seem to be their exact opposites, they share the problem of being almost inaccessible to humans and completely reliant on technology to transform the human body.Through various systems of display the artworks immerse the spectators entirely – creating a new environment one has to orient themselves in. By revisiting ideas from his influential exhibitions from the past as well as displaying significant pieces throughout points in his career GHL does not curate his history but rather directs us towards the practice of his future.

Longly ́s openness to collaborative practices and exchange are a constant inquiry into a diverse range of disciplines. The artworks are imbued with agency developed through an artistic, social and political climate surrounding the artist throughout the working process.

VdW Inc. is a collaborative entity created by GHL  & Cookies, a Rotterdam-based design and architecture collective, and London-based artist George Henry Longly. The initial impulse of the project was to articulate a collaboration between the design practice of Cookies and the artistic practice of GHL that is beyond a superficial collage of ideas and that integrates research, art, design and architecture in order to reach outcomes that are relevant to emerging lifestyles. VdW have created a series of functional objects that are inspired by historical and current trends in office furniture, corporate aesthetics and contemporary live/work environments. The three daybeds exhibited in the exhibition Benthos are made out of glass and aluminum and are directly influenced from the Roman triclinium embodying the staged laziness and horizontal scrolling culture.

Searchers is a film created by Longly together with the Swiss musician, producer and artist Nelson Beer for his track Vespers. Beer is the protagonist as well as the composer of the score of this public video artwork that is currently simultaneously on view in Aarhus (Denmark). Within this project the potential of collaborative practice demonstrates itself again in the artist ́s discipline and articulates a constant blending of projects that not only influence current work but also the future.

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