Grouped around the theme of manual work and construction, the exhibition brings together an eclectic set of artworks from five of Ben Long’s ongoing projects established over the last two decades. Perhaps best known of these is his monumental Scaffolding Sculptures, a project where framework components used within the building industry are repurposed to create sculptural form.
Works from this series have been variously commissioned by individuals and organisations including Banksy for his group Dismaland exhibition in 2015, The City of London Corporation for Sculpture in the City in 2014, the Duke & Duchess of Devonshire for Chatsworth House in 2019, and Contemporary Art Society for London’s Economist Plaza in 2009. On display at Domeij, Long will exhibit the two related works Unity of Three Coupled Tubes and the wall vinyl Working Drawing, both describing the process of work as a methodical, cumulative endeavour.
Other works on display include the modular Level Structures, a system of interlocking aluminium spirit levels that slot horizontally or vertically into position to display a perfect state of equilibrium. The abiding principle of universal balance is further explored in the accompanying photorealistic oil paintings of Plumb and Level.
Beam is the artist’s most recently established project represented in the show. Commissioned by Nyköpings Kommun in 2021 and completed earlier this year, seven industrial H–beams are fashioned to represent a 15m tall shaft of golden sunlight, the channels radiating in clean, straight lines from an upper vanishing point down to the ground below.
The associated artwork presented here is a schematic drawing based on the taut lines of the sculpture’s form. Offset against the yellow painted arc of the support, the drawing is a geometric representation of a morning’s labour; the productive early hours of the first half of what could well be described as a good day’s work.
