During the abstract film screening last class, I felt most intrigued by New Zealand artist Len Lye first through a glimpse of his kinetic installations and soon later his film production. No matter it is sculpture or film, his works commonly feature a kind of upbeat energy and a strong sense of impulse. A Colour Box is incredibly dazzling and rich in flavor – it unfolds with the rapid movement of geometrical shapes and patterns with the constant change of oftentimes shiny and bright background colors. Moreover, the short film for sure creates a synesthetic experience for viewers – the audio and visual information are both fast-paced and share a common mood of excitement with the movement of each component and the overall frames always corresponding to the rhythm. However, what I find most interesting is his inclusion of words besides the use of abstract language. Words taken from post, food packaging, cigarettes box surprisingly intrude this world of abstraction, introducing the impression of traveling/globalization and possibly consumerism.
Despite being recognized as a New Zealand artist with the major collection of his works located there, Lye spent most of his life beyond his birth nation – after his travel to Australia and Samoa in his early years as an adult, he eventually settled in London where he began his career as an artist, and eventually past away in New York (“The World of Len Lye”). The experience of living with the indigenous community and being expelled by the New Zealand Colonial administration inevitably led to one of his most important artistic focuses, the primitive and the aboriginal in the historical background of modernism (“Free Radicals by Len Lye”). His most well-known film Free Radicals is a tribute to the indigenous culture in Africa composed by rhythmic movements of flickering patterns to the rhythmic African drumming and tribal singing (“Free Radicals by Len Lye”). In achieving the total abstraction, Lye was the pioneer to work with the direct film-making technique – a technique which didn’t require working with a camera. I feel very impressed by the expressive nature of Lye’s works and hope to learn more from his art in the future.
Works Cited
“The World of Len Lye | Govett-Brewster Art Gallery | Len Lye Centre.” Accessed October 8, 2019. https://govettbrewster.com/len-lye/.
“Free Radicals by Len Lye.” The Third Eye (blog), December 20, 2012. http://www.thethird-eye.co.uk/free-radicals-by-len-lye/.