Salient. Official Newspaper of Victoria University of Wellington Students Association. Vol 40 No. 6. April 4 1977

Avant~Garde at the Gallery — Len Lye Film Festival

Avant~Garde at the Galler y

Len Lye Film Festival

Len Lye: "To me, the medium ain't the magic. The gene pattern does the twanging The medium is no more magical than is a flashlight to an Ibo, or a laser to a truck-driver."

Len Lye: "To me, the medium ain't the magic. The gene pattern does the twanging The medium is no more magical than is a flashlight to an Ibo, or a laser to a truck-driver."

"The new brain of science is nearing a stage where it could apply its search for factual truth to the nature of creativity and 'value'. In the meanwhile we can reason why art is perhaps the only way these two qualities can be isolated for what in fact they are. Myth can tell the story of individuality, art can represent it, and science could verify its truth." Len Lye.

A New Zealander who left as soon as he could in search of a movie camera and has been largely ignored here ever since. Len Lye is the inventor of the 'direct film technique, a leading exponent of tangible motion sculpture' and formulator of the theory of 'art in the genes'. To mark his first Australasian exhibition currently being staged at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth, the National Art Gallery is holding a 'festival' of films on and by Lye, with accompanying wall display.

The direct film technique is says Lye, "the means by which you directly etch, that is scratch with a needle, right into the celluloid, or paint right on to the celluloid so that the colour sticks to it. . . if you also synchronise the visual accenting with sound accenting of music with say, a rhythmic beat, then you've got something you can look at. The visual image, that is, the picture, is a combination of abstract shapes wiggling around synchronised with the abstract, sound or music you hear. One enhances the other, one sharpens up the other."

All four of Lye's films being shown were made in this fashion. Colour Box (1935), advertising reduced parcel rates, was the first of its kind. Both it and Trade Tattoo (1937), a look at the workaday world, were made under John Grierson at the British GPO Film Unit. Colour Box won a special award at the Brussels International Film Festival, and both are considered by Lye to be among his best. Musical Poster (1940), made in London for the March of Time series, is a subtle war propaganda film. Free Radicals (1958), also an award winner at Brussels, is Lye's black and white swan song: rising costs and public apathy to short fine art films were forcing him into other fields.

Lye is best known for his kinetic sculptures, often seen as a bridge between fine art and theatre. The Loop (1965), for example, is a twenty foot long long circular strip of polished steel resting on a magnetised and motorised bed. When the motor is activitated the strip changes and undulates viciously. Fountain (1963) is a spray of stainless steel rods joined at the motories base, which vibrate and reflect light in ever changing patterns. Lye has said that this March of Time films reflected his own art by "not a sausage of any sort." The two documentaries. Walls Come Tumbling Down and Art for Tomorrow can be expected to present numerous examples of the sculptures and should also prove invaluable in assessing the development from film which did occur.

"I think." says Lye, "that we have to not only create art but the way we respond to it involves the very essence of our being insofar as it sharpens our own sense of essential selfness. . . There are moments in life when we all get this feeling. For example, a sunset or whatnot, when at the time of experience we are at one with nature, if not the universe. Well I think why we feel this sort of thing is simply because we've got a gene pattern that is chock-a-block full of information about nature. This gene pattern stems right out of nature, and we've each got our own version of one; each one's got a distinct version. But when we hit that level of genetic information where we are imprinting our gene pattern essence into a work of art, which is the one thing I think art is all about, when we imprint that quality of our genetic make-up, the art lover feels that essence through the old brain, not the new brain which is in our intellect, but out of the old sensory, intuitive brain, which senses the imprint of this guy's marvellous feeling. . . it enhances your own inner sense of being."

Broadly speaking, this is not a new approach: Lye's contribution is a visionary attack on the fuzzy acceptance of intuitive response. The work of this artist/scientist/philosopher should not be missed.

Len Lye films:

  • April 4—17.
  • Mon—Fri 1p.m.
  • Sat—Sun 3p.m.

Education Gallery of the National Art Gallery. (Limited seating available.)