utk

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utk is a group of four artists Liz Hall, Tony Kemplen, Jane Mellor and Bev Stout, who have been working together for seven years. The work has been shown in gallery spaces and also within the public domain, in order to encourage engagement and debate with a wider audience. utk works with the notion of the everyday experience and the process often involves intervention into existing arenas; the house, the street or the workplace. Familiar concepts are dislodged and the viewer is invited to think twice.

Zero point six degrees

A video installation for ‘Talking Points’ at the Cooper Gallery, Barnsley. (January – March 2006)

Just when you thought it was all going so well… (October – December 2005)

Installations and interventions commissioned for Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield

A visit from the plate spinner (September 2005)

New work made for the S1 studios members’ show

Pure Screen (November 2004)

utk’s short video ‘Limelight’ included in Phantasmagoria, screening of artists’ film and video, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester.

Memoir Raft (September 2004)

Installation in a large warehouse in response to the Momart fire which destroyed a large number of artworks.

10x10x10 (June 2003)

A semi-spontaneous group show in which ten artists were allocated one of ten subjects and ten media in which to work.

Solitary Pleasures (October 2002)

Three separate, but related installations at the LMU Gallery, Leeds. Notions of autonomy and social control are addressed obliquely, engaging the viewer with all five senses in an immersive experience.

Public Health (January 2002)

Text work on the moving message displays in the toilets of the National Museum for Popular Music, Sheffield, part of the group show ‘I came-I saw-I Conker’d’.

Any Port in a Storm (October 2001)

The interior and exterior of a 1930s beach chalet in Hastings, became the subject of a collaborative installation by utk involving text, photographs and sound. Made as part of the Coastal Currents festival of visual arts.

Tabs, teasers and tormentors (January 2001)

Commissioned work by Site Gallery, Sheffield. Video work displayed onto the projection window dealing with the interface between the gallery and the street, inside and outside, the real and the imagined.

Guest House Twenty (June 2000)

Artists from Britain and Ireland were invited to submit work, which was placed into twenty host sites, selected from domestic houses and workplaces around Sheffield. Hosts were encouraged to open the work up to family friends and colleagues and there was an opportunity for hosts and artists to meet. Work included video, painting and a 24-hour durational performance in a domestic bedroom. This work was funded by an Arts Council Grant.

Das Haus (February 2000)

For this project the group all worked together in the same space using the same media. Four looped super 8 cine projections, and four audiotape loops played continuously in an otherwise empty attic. In negotiating their way through the projected light beams, the audience briefly became a part of the work.

Florilegium (May 1999)

The project was sited in five adjacent terrace gardens, selected because of their coherent nature, with each work relating to the specific plant. Again the work produced included sound, photography and sculpture.

Challenging Rooms (November 1998 to April 1999)

Using a newspaper advertisement inviting people to offer domestic spaces for the group to work in, three houses were selected with work being produced in a short space of time responding to both house and the occupant. The focus of the project was the semi-public "opening" which provided an opportunity to discuss the work with an audience unfamiliar with contemporary art.

Route 31 (May 1998)

A project which placed work on and along a bus route. Work included text on bus shelters, sound works on buses and in local libraries, sculpture or works set into the ground, super 8 film projections in domestic windows, video works in a TV repair shop, and a shop converted to simulate a photographer's studio. This work was funded by the Arts Council Lottery A4E grants.

Catalogues

Route 31 – with an introductory essay by Steve Swindells

Challenging Rooms – introduction by Florence Llewellyn-Bowen

Guest House Twenty – introduction by Jeanine Griffin – assistant curator, Site Gallery, Sheffield

Solitary Pleasures – introduction by Moira Innes

10x10x10 – introduction by Laura Mipsom

Just when you thought it was all going so well… – with an introductory essay by Dave Beech