Len Lye: an artist in perpetual motion

Len Lye (1901-1980) was an experimental filmmaker, sculptor, photographer and writer originating from New Zealand; he move to London in the 1920's and later to New York in the 1940's.

Many of Lye films are made without a camera, rather applying paint marks (and later scratching) directly onto the film's surface to make abstract imagery. This imagery was often combined with fast paced jazz music to create works of vibrant colour and rhythmic beats. Movement, light and sound all combine in Lye's films making them dynamic forerunners in the structural film movement that would soon emerge in the 1960's and 70's.



Len Lye: an artist in perpetual motion, is showing at the Australian Center for the Moving Image, in Melbourne until mid October.