A pioneer of direct-animation and experimental filmmaking, Len Lye (1901-1980) was also a highly innovative painter, photographer and poet, as well as an important figure in kinetic sculpture.
Born in Christchurch, New Zealand and largely self-educated, Lye was driven by a life-long passion for motion, energy and the possibility of composing them as a form of art. Lye’s interests took him far from New Zealand – after sojourns in the South Pacific, Lye moved to London and then New York, where he became known as an intensely creative film-maker and kinetic sculptor. Inspired by the primitive imagery of South Sea island art and film’s power to present dance ritual and music, Lye’s camera-less techniques appear until today experimental – and often revolutionary.
The film program presents a selection of Lye’s short films from the 1920s through the 1970s. It is curated by Paul Brobbel, curator at the Govett Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth (New Zealand) and Martha Kirszenbaum, director and curator of Fahrenheit.
Program:
Tusalava (1929)
10 min, 35 mm – 16 frames/sec transferred to digital video, b&w, silent
A Colour Box (1935)
4 min, 35mm transferred to digital video, Dufaycolour, sound
Kaleidoscope (1935)
4 min, 16mm transferred to digital video, color, sound
Rainbow Dance (1936)
5 min, 35mm transferred to digital video, Gasparcolour, sound
Trade Tattoo (1937)
5 min, 35mm transferred to digital video, Technicolor, sound
N. or N.W. (1937)
7 min, 35mm transferred to digital video, b&w, sound
Swinging the Lambeth Walk (1939)
4 min, 35mm transferred to digital video, Dufaycolour, sound
Color Cry (1952-3)
3 min, 16mm transferred to digital video, Kodachrome, sound
Rhythm (1957)
1 min, 16mm transferred to digital video, b&w, sound
Particles in Space (1957)
4 min, 16 mm transferred to digital video, b&w, sound
Free Radicals (1979)
4 min, 16mm transferred to digital video, b&w, sound