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the Refusal: A body of original artworks

This research, The Refusal comprising of 19 works, explores the shaping of human identity through our obsession with the image. Relying on the figure of the dog and analysing the effect this figure has on the construction of the sense of self, Longhurst’s research triangulates at the intersection of animal representation in art, philosophical engagements with the idea of the animal and “animality,” and socio-historical accounts of human eugenics/animal breeding and psychoanalytic theories of subjectivity. Dr Longhurst’s specific case study is the Whippet, a highly posed and highly constructed domestic animal, bred by a selective process to an ideal standard. Prompted partially by the centenary of Darwin’s birth in 2009, Longhurst’s work has directly contributed to the emerging field of animal studies in art through the physical making of art. The Museum Folkwang and Art Gallery of Ontario, both recognized as world-leading institutions with a special focus on photography, modern, and contemporary art were amongst many arts platforms that exhibited this work. Ute Eskildsen, a recognised world expert in photography, consultant to MOMA, New York, and Tate Modern and the curator and former director of the Museum, introduced Longhurst’s work to the German public saying: “[Longhurst’s Refusal portraits] Despite their utter perfection, they unnerve the viewer through the polarity of rational documentation and emotional-situational depiction.” In 2012, Dr Longhurst won the Grange Prize (a $50,000 prize launched in 2008 with a mandate to recognize the best in Canadian and International contemporary photography). The Refusal also debuted at: The Liverpool “New Contemporaries 2008” Biennale, The Photomonth in Krakow, and the five-year landmark event, dOCUMENTA (13) “dedicated to artistic research and forms of imagination that explore commitment, matter, things, embodiment, and active living in connection with, and yet not subordinated to, theory” with over 860,000 viewers to the work.