B.
Love Len Lye
Behind the scenes
I've always been a fan of Len Lye's work so it was a treat to see his kinetic sculpture on display in Len Lye: Kaleidoscope at the City Gallery when I passed through Wellington last week.
Installation view of Max Gimblett: On a Clear Day at Page Blackie Gallery, Wellington.
Len Lye and Max Gimblett in Lye's studio, New York, 1980. Art New Zealand 17.
Lye's kinetic work never fails to please, especially the pieces that make you feel a little uneasy, dangerous pieces that make you keep your distance for fear of being walloped by a blade of stainless steel. One piece on display at City Gallery, Storm King, builds in intensity, movement and sound that couldn't help but remind me of sitting through an earthquake.
You can view it in action here
Len Lye Universe 1966. 1998 reconstruction, steel on wood and laminated wood base, magnets, cork ball, 220 x 250 x 28 cm. Len Lye Foundation, Govett Brewster Art Gallery.
Other kinetic pieces included the more sedate Universe, Firebush, Grass and Fountain; well worth the visit if you are in Wellington. By happy coincidence just round the corner from the Len Lye exhibition is a show of new paintings by New York / New Zealand artist Max Gimblett who was best pals with Lye in New York during the 1970s. Max's exhibition, On a Clear Day is running at the Page Blackie Gallery until April 6. A nice connection between two great artists.
Related reading: Len Lye
Article
Going online
I’ve never actually seen the Mona Lisa, and it’s a fair bet that most people reading this article haven’t either. Yet, according to Wikipedia, the painting is ‘the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world’. So how to account for the fame of an artwork we haven’t seen? And what have reproductions of Da Vinci’s sixteenth-century portrait got to teach us about time-based art and the online environment in 2015?
Exhibition
Len Lye: The Total Artwork
Celebrates the centenary of one of New Zealand's most inventive artists.
Article
Some notes on movement in art
Hanging from the ceiling in my infant son's room is a mobile. At rest, he seems to scarcely notice its suspended figures, but a quick breath brings them to life and, drawn to their gentle twirling, his face brightens and body tenses with a laugh.
