United Visual Artists x Hennessy V.S.O.P sheds a new light 

Pushing beyond the material world, United Visual Artists creates works that are better understood as events in time: they use light, color, sound and movement to manipulate perceptions of reality. Founded in 2003 by British artist Matt Clark, the pioneering London-based art collective has created a diverse body of work that fuses high-tech and traditional art media and draws on sources as disparate as ancient philosophy and theoretical science. For Hennessy V.S.O.P, United Visual Artists merged their artistic explorations of light, motion and time with the Hennessy Master Blender’s craft: each beam of light represents an eau-de-vie selected for this balanced cognac. As the installation moves, the beams seem to blend as one. “As an art practice, we’re always looking at how the physical world shapes perception,” explains Matthew Clark. “As it turns out, there are many synergies with cognac-making.”

Matthew Clark describes his collective as being “a bit like a band where everyone has an important part to play”: it is an organic synergy of improvisation and intuition that draws on each member’s specialty to create emotionally engaging artworks spanning sculpture, performance and site-specific installations. United Visual Artists describes its universe as being “politically charged, topical, thought-provoking and having a strong social conscience.”  Keeping an open and inclusive approach to collaboration has led to numerous projects with specialists in fields outside of art and design. The collective has a longstanding collaborative relationship with the British band Massive Attack, and has worked with artists and creatives including choreographer Benjamin Millepied and the fashion designer Christopher Bailey. To date, United Visual Artist’s work has been exhibited all over the world, from New York, London, Paris and Milan to Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo.