bricolage rainbow: Len Lye: The Cosmic Archive

The Birth of the Robot, 1936

If I had money to burn, the exhibition "LEN LYE: THE COSMIC ARCHIVE" at Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in Aotearoa, New Zealand would be a serious priority. Us New York based folk, and NZ foreigners will have to settle for the forthcoming publication from Govett-Brewster Art Gallery instead, which is fantastic considering the major scarcity of scholarship on his body of work. "Len Lye" is co-published by the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and the Len Lye Foundation with support from the Govett-Brewster Foundation, and distributed internationally by Random House

LEN LYE: THE COSMIC ARCHIVE
12 December 2009 – 15 March 2010
During his career, New Zealand-born artist Len Lye (1901–1980) witnessed a period of tremendous expansion in scientific inquiry. The Len Lye Collection and Archive at the Govett-Brewster contains hundreds of scientific articles the artist gleaned from the popular press, in fields ranging from psychology to astronomy, particle physics to palaeontology.

Featuring several of these news clippings, Len Lye: The Cosmic Archive explores the space age imagination and its impact on Lye’s work in a range of media. This exhibition presents the newly reconstructed kinetic sculpture, Moon Bead (1968/2009), the rarely seen Bones (1965), as well as the films The Birth of the Robot (1936) and Particles in Space (1957–1979).

Curated by Tyler Cann
Courtesy the Len Lye Foundation and The New Zealand Film Archive

(The Cover of the Publication)

With contributions by editors Tyler Cann and Prof. Wystan Curnow alongside new essays by Guy Brett, Roger Horrocks, Evan Webb and Tessa Laird, this comprehensive and visually rich presentation of Lye's work underlines his distinctive place in modern and contemporary art.

Best known for his vibrant 'direct' films painted on celluloid, New Zealand-born Len Lye (1901-1980) was a kinetic sculptor, poet, painter and writer as well as an experimental filmmaker. This new publication brings together the many facets of Lye's energetic mind, pioneering career and ebullient personality, throwing fresh light on a seminal figure in the history of the moving image.