Exhibitions
Events
On display
The Life of Len
Len Lye painting the film Colour Flight, 1938. Len Lye Foundation Collection, Govett-Brewster Art
Gallery and Len Lye Centre
Talk
Past event
Philip Carter Family Auditorium
Free
Building on our exhibition Len Lye: Stopped Short by Wonder, Roger Horrocks—writer, film-maker and former assistant to Len Lye—presents an illustrated view of Lye’s life and work and his connection to Christchurch.
Horrocks is an expert on the life and work of New Zealand born artist and filmmaker Len Lye. He was Lye’s assistant in New York during the last year of Lye’s life and wrote the acclaimed biography on the artist which sold out two printings and was a finalist in the Montana New Zealand Book Awards. He also wrote Art That Moves on Lye’s work, and the libretto for Len Lye: The Opera. He has curated exhibitions of Lye’s work and directed a film about Lye.
Related reading: Talk, Free event
Exhibition
Len Lye: Stopped Short by Wonder
5 August – 26 November 2017
An exhibition inspired by a flash of light and a thunderclap.
Commentary
Len Lye Works
The glancing body of a hooked swordfish; the shivering skin of a panicky horse; a shiny tin kicked in rage by a young boy outside the Cape Campbell lighthouse. This triptych of memories was the inspiration for avant-garde New Zealand sculptor, painter and film-maker Len Lye’s Blade (1972–4) – a vertical band of steel that curves, flexes, arches then hammers frenetically against a cork ball in a fury of light, sound and movement.
