Coinciding with their 10th anniversary, United Visual Artists present Momentum, an immersive installation that combines light, sound and movement.

Barbican Centre has commissioned the multi-disciplinary art and design studioUnited Visual Artists to create a new work for the Curve.

Drawing on physics and digital technology, UVA are turning the Curve into a spatial instrument, installing a sequence of pendulum-like elements throughout the 90 metre long gallery to create an evolving composition of light and sound. The pendulums – sometimes moving in unexpected ways – project shadows and planes of light across the 6 metre-high walls and curved floor of the space. Visitors are invited to explore the room at their own pace, and their movement through the gallery shapes their individual experience.

UVA’s installations consider each space an immersive environment where the visitor’s point of view plays an important role in the outcome.

United Visual Artists (UVA) is an art practice that use 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.

Based in London, UVA was founded in 2003 by Matthew Clark, Chris Bird and Ash Nehru. Their work has been exhibited at institutions and galleries including the South Bank Centre, the Wellcome Collection Durham and The British Library. InternationallyUVA 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’.

UVA are currently working on a solo show at the Towner Gallery Eastbourne which will open in April 2014.

• Artists:
  United Visual Artists
•  
• Open:
  Thursday, 13 February 2014
• Close:
  Sunday, 01 June 2014
• Address:
  Barbican Centre, Silk St, London EC2Y 8DS, United Kingdom
• Phone:
  +44 845 120 7550
• Web:
  Barbican
• Opening hour:
  Sat – Wed | 11am – 8pm; Thu – Fri | 11am – 9pm
• Admission:
  Free
• Photo credits:
  United Visual Artists: Momentum (Installation images), © Bethany Clark/Getty Images, courtesy Barbican Art Gallery