The Store X The Vinyl Factory and Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain present Other Spaces, a solo show of the British art-collective United Visual Artists, founded in 2003 by the artist Matt Clark who, since the early stages of his career, introduced an innovative vision that is aimed at exploring the potential that exists between art, science, and modern technologies. This experimental approach led the artists to various collaborations with musicians such as Massive Attack and James Blake, choreographers such as Benjamin Millepied, and fashion designers such as Christopher Bailey with whom the artists conceived the 2018 Burberry’s fashion show. At 180 The Strand, the exhibition Other Spaces celebrates 15 years of artistic career and confirms the pioneering role that UVA has played over the years in recognizing the potential of new media in a climate that, according to the founder, is characterized by ‘a period of rapid technological and ecological transformation’.
Interested in the immersive and multi-sensory dimension of the artistic experience, UVA conceive the exhibition according to three different immersive situations wherein the viewer is invited to rethink the perception of space and time according to an absolute synthesis of elements such as light and sound which have always defined the stylistic trait of the art-collective. Three multimedia installations, rigorously presented in a sequence of dark spaces, outline here the quintessence of a new architecture of thought that dwells on the physicality and the performativity of the artistic experience by reflecting on time, motion, and the milieu through a series of multimedia environments.
By traversing the exhibitive paths of the exhibition, the show opens with a quote from the historical installation Momentum, presented at the Curve Gallery of the Barbican Centre in 2013, and here revisited in the context of the immersive environment Our Time, 2019. Composed of a single sculptural armour and further articulated through a series of mechanical arms, the installation simultaneously projects beams of light and sound waves, designed by the sound designer Mira Calix. In line with the kinetic tradition, rethought through an immersive scale, the installation Our Time reflects a new perception and a new dimension for the categories of space and time contemporaneously to modern physics and scientific discoveries. This is made evident here by digital and electronic media to emphasise the immersive dimension of their practice in relation to the viewer’s experience.
The installation Vanishing Point 3: 1, 2019, further elaborates on this perceptive estrangement by rethinking the perspectival laws by Leon Battista Alberti through a shift of focus that is no longer aimed at configuring an objective representation of the world, but turns towards the viewer to design an immersive experience. Here, from a reflective surface, UVA focus on a vanishing point that projects a drawing of light composing a series of modular geometries that are repeated in a scale of multiples. In this sense, the sophisticated technology of Vanishing Point reveals an image and an experience of light and sound which are rendered in function of the spectator to suggest a vitalist experience of enactment.
The sequence of immersive landscapes culminates with the installation The Great Animal Orchestra, presented at the Triennale this year in Milan, originally commissioned by the Foundation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain for a homonymous exhibition in Paris in 2016, and here at its London premiere. Conceived as a collaboration between United Visual Artists and the American bioacoustic researcher and musician Bernie Krause, who coined the term bio-sphere, the installation consists of a graphic representation of light and sound’s environments wherein one can explore the soundscape of a number of natural habitats which have remained invisible to the most. Based on a collection of over 5,000 hours of audio recordings of over 15,000 animal and natural species, The Great Animal Orchestra articulates the synthesis of visual and aural components and emphasizes the need of formulating a poetic that beyond the logic of man, could re-evaluate the potential of an ecological context.
In its minimalist synthesis and its immersive complexity, Other Spaces is an invitation to transcend the limits of perception to encounter the invisible, bringing us back to an affective dimension of experience wherein humans can find themselves as part of an artistic, scientific, and technological evolution. The juxtaposition of visual and sonorous experiences is an artistic trait that one can find again in the catalogue publication which includes the vinyl version of the recordings of The Great Animal Orchestra, made possible through the support of The Store X The Vinyl Factory and Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain.
Info:
Other Spaces by United Visual Artists
2 October – 8 December 2019
The Store X The Vinyl Factory e Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain
180 The Strand, London
UVA, Our Time, Store X, courtesy the artists, The Store X The Vynyl Factory, Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain
UVA, Vanishing Point, Store X, courtesy the artists, The Store X The Vynyl Factory, Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain
UVA, Vanishing Point, Store X, courtesy the artists, The Store X The Vynyl Factory, Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain
UVA, The Great Animal Orchestra, Store X, courtesy the artists, The Store X The Vynyl Factory, Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain
She is interested in the visual, verbal and textual aspects of the Modern Contemporary Arts. From historical-artistic studies at the Cà Foscari University, Venice, she has specialized in teaching and curatorial practice at the IED, Rome, and Christie’s London. The field of her research activity focuses on the theme of Light from the 1950s to current times, ontologically considering artistic, phenomenological and visual innovation aspects.
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