Hasta La Ideas

Opening tomorrow at the Smithfield Gallery in London is a new exhibition by United Visual Artists. The collective is perhaps best known for its large-scale light-based installations made for clients including Tate Modern, Giorgio Armani and Massive Attack, yet for their first solo show, UVA have created a series (titled Deus) of still images, displayed on lightboxes.

“Most of our light works are experiential, set in the real world for people to touch, feel and interact with; they’re here today, gone tomorrow,” say Matt Clark and James Medcraft of UVA, who created Deus. “The challenge we set ourselves with this exhibition was to distill these explorations with light into single images, while retaining the emotive quality of our installation work.”

“The exhibition will contain a series of large-scale photographic prints which explore the effect of artificial light on the natural landscape,” the pair continue. “We travelled to the darkest depths of Britain, looking for places that had been influenced by man’s intervention but never artificially illuminated. Introducing the artificial light had a transforming effect, literally creating a new place that only existed momentarily.” The exhibition will continue until June 26. More info is at thesmithfieldgallery.com.