About me
Matthew Clark is a founder and Creative Director of United Visual Artists.
UVA is a London based art practice that combines a wide range of disciplines including sculpture, installation, live performance, and architecture. The studio has an open approach to collaboration, uniting diverse skills to continuously evolve new technologies and materials, which in turn suggest new artistic directions.
The studio’s lines of enquiry include the tension between real and synthesised experiences – the questioning of our relationship with technology, and the creation of phenomena that transcend the purely physical. In all their work, they aim to distill complexity down to its essence. Based in London, UVA was founded in 2003 by Matthew Clark, Chris Bird?and Ash Nehru.
UVA have been commissioned by Artwise Curators, The Creators Project, La Gaite Lyrique, National Maritime Museum, Opera North, Royal Academy of Arts, Victoria & Albert Museum, Manchester International Festival, The Serpentine Gallery, Barbican and YCAM Japan. Their work has been exhibited at institutions and galleries including the South Bank Centre, the Wellcome Collection and The British Library. Internationally UVA have shown in Barcelona, Beijing, Hong Kong, Melbourne, New York, Paris, São Paulo, St. Petersburg, Taipei and Tokyo.
Their designs for live performance have led to commissions for venues such as the Tate Modern Turbine Hall, Serpentine Gallery and Madison Square Garden in New York. In 2007, UVA’s responsive light and sound sculpture Volume won a yellow pencil at the D&AD awards, and featured in the London Design Museum’s ‘Design of the Year’ show in 2008. Speed of Light was nominated for ‘Design of the Year’ in 2010, and High Arctic nominated in 2011.?UVA were awarded a distinction for their kinetic installation Chorus at the 2010 edition of Prix Arts Electronica. In 2011, Speed of Light was awarded a Creative Review Annual and listed in the Annual as ‘Best in Book’.
Projects
- FragmentFragment is a site specific installation that investigates our (in)ability to correctly interpret the surrounding environment. The work continues the studio’s ongoing study into scientific models of nature and their experiments in utilising light as a formable material. 421 octahedron frames are assembled to form an inverted pyramid, suspended in a day-lit atrium, catching and reflecting light downwards into the space. Artificial white light is animated within the structure to create fragmented images; shapes that allude to real world illusions such as a desert mirage or fata morgana.
- BattlesUVA’s first live-action music video was created in 2007 for Tonto, a song by Battles. A unique LED installation was created for a disused Welsh slate mine, making it an audio synchronised field of light contrasting with the rugged terrain. The video consists of documentation of the band’s marathon 11-hour performance, as well as a series of time-lapse pieces from the surrounding geography. The cover artwork for Tonto is also taken from the shoot, and designed by UVA.
- VolumeUVA’s large-scale installation Volume first appeared in the garden of London’s V&A museum in 2006 and has since traveled as far as Hong Kong, Taiwan, St. Petersburg and Melbourne. It consists of a field of 48 luminous, sound-emitting columns that respond to movement. Visitors weave a path through the sculpture, creating their own unique journey in light and music. The result of a collaboration with Massive Attack, Volume won the D&AD Yellow Pencil in 2007 for Outstanding Achievement in the Digital Installation category.
- EchoWith Echo UVA have created an 8-minute live performance piece in collaboration with contemporary UK dance group Mimbre. Advanced 3D cameras are used to capture the movements of the dancers on stage, translating these in real time to abstract white forms on a large-scale backdrop, in order to create a simultaneous performance. Echo was first performed during a launch at Tate Modern, London in 2006, and performed at Como’s Teatro Sociale, Italy in 2009.
- OriginOrigin is a responsive installation meant to explore our society’s acceptance of a technocratic life form. Hedged between the two Bridges on Brooklyn’s shore, a 10m x 10m cube of light both disrupts and reflects the City, eliciting an emotional reaction from those that enter its realm. Origin is the culmination of a series of works derived from Orchestrion, the main stage design created by UVA for Coachella 2011. Origin is the product of a collaboration between United Visual Artists and Scanner, who composed the score.
- SERPENTINE PAVILION INTERVENTIONAs an event UVA transformed Sou Fujimoto’s summer pavilion at London’s Serpentine Gallery, bringing the cloud-like structure to life with an electrical storm. Their performative installation aims to make the architecture “breathe”, awakening a character and energy, seemingly from within. For this piece UVA reference their past works which, similar to Fujimoto’s, rely on geometric foundations and interests.
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Work history
Founding Partner & Creative DirectorUnited Visual Artists
Matthew Clark is a founder and Director of United Visual Artists.
UVA is an art practice that uses design processes to combine a wide range of disciplines including sculpture, installation, live performance, and architecture.
The studio has an open approach to collaboration, uniting diverse skills to continuously evolve new technologies and materials, which in turn suggest new artistic directions.
UVA's lines of enquiry include the tension between real and synthesised experiences - the questioning of our relationship with technology, and the creation of phenomena that transcend the purely physical. In all their work, they aim to distill complexity down to its essence.
UVA’s work has been exhibited at institutions including the V&A, the Royal Academy of Art, the South Bank Centre, the Wellcome Collection, Opera North Leeds, Durham Cathedral and The British Library. Their artworks have also toured internationally to cities including Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Yamaguchi, Taipei, Hong Kong, Melbourne and Barcelona. UVA also have large scale permanent art works in Toronto and Istanbul.
UVA’s designs for live performance have led to commissions at venues such as the Tate Modern turbine hall, Madison Square Garden in New York and Trafalgar Square London. UVA have also collaborated with musicians including Massive Attack,
Jay Z, U2, Chemical Brothers
and Battles.
In 2007, UVA’s responsive light and sound sculpture Volume won a yellow pencil at the D&AD awards, and featured in the London Design Museum’s ‘Design of the Year’ show in 2008. 'Speed of Light' was also featured in the London 'Design of the Year' exhibition, showing the best designs of 2010. UVA were awarded a distinction for their kinetic installation Chorus at the 2010 edition of Prix Arts Electronica.
Skills
- Visual Arts
- Art Direction
- Public Art
- Sculpture
- Fine Art
- Digital
- Design
- Creative Direction
- Artist
Education
Fine Art Sculpture
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Fine Art Sculpture and Graphic Design
Awards
Design of the Year
'Speed of Light' was featured in the London 'Design of the Year' exhibition, showing the best designs of 2010.
Distinction
UVA were awarded a distinction for their kinetic installation Chorus at the 2010 edition of Prix Arts Electronica.
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