Projection Series #1: Len Lye’s Colour Box

25 Jul - 18 Dec 2015

The pioneering film A Colour Box (1935), as acclaimed now as it was in its day, leads us into a survey of Lye’s colourful, musical and technically thrilling short films made between the 1930s and 1950s.

Len Lye Centre

Artists Len Lye

Drawing, painting or scratching onto film leader without the need for a camera to make the image, Lye brought the concept of ‘direct animation’ to life.

At the heart of the Len Lye Centre's cinema programme is the return of the Govett-Brewster's Projection Series - our quarterly film programme surveying the landscape of historical and contemporary fine art filmmaking.

Len Lye's Colour Box marks the first projection series, presenting nine colourful, musical and technically thrilling short films by Len Lye - our man in the world of experimental film.

Drawing, painting or scratching onto film leader without the need for a camera to make the image, Lye brought the concept of ‘direct animation’ to life. The selection will include the recently restored and rarely seen All Souls Carnival (1957).

Total running time: 51 minutes

Curated by Paul Brobbel

In association with the Len Lye Foundation and Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Download Exhibition Catalogue

Film still from A Colour Box (1935). Courtesy of the Len Lye Foundation and the British Postal Museum and Archive. From material preserved by the BFI National Archive and made available by The New Zealand Archive of Film, Television and Sound Ngā Taonga Whitiāhua Me Ngā Taonga Kōrero

Film still from A Colour Box (1935). Courtesy of the Len Lye Foundation and the British Postal Museum and Archive. From material preserved by the BFI National Archive and made available by The New Zealand Archive of Film, Television and Sound Ngā Taonga Whitiāhua Me Ngā Taonga Kōrero
Len Lye

Film still from Rainbow Dance (1936). Courtesy of the Len Lye Foundation and the British Postal Museum and Archive. From material preserved by the BFI National Archive and made available by The New Zealand Archive of Film, Television and Sound Ngā Taonga Whitiāhua Me Ngā Taonga

Len Lye

Film still from Rainbow Dance (1936). Courtesy of the Len Lye Foundation and the British Postal Museum and Archive. From material preserved by the BFI National Archive and made available by The New Zealand Archive of Film, Television and Sound Ngā Taonga Whitiāhua Me Ngā Taonga
Len Lye

Film still from Trade Tattoo (1937). Courtesy of the Len Lye Foundation and the British Postal Museum and Archive. From material preserved and made available by The New Zealand Archive of Film, Television and Sound Ngā Taonga Whitiāhua Me Ngā Taonga

Len Lye

Film still from Trade Tattoo (1937). Courtesy of the Len Lye Foundation and the British Postal Museum and Archive. From material preserved and made available by The New Zealand Archive of Film, Television and Sound Ngā Taonga Whitiāhua Me Ngā Taonga
Len Lye

Film still from Colour Flight (1938). Courtesy of the Len Lye Foundation. From material preserved and made available by The New Zealand Archive of Film, Television and Sound Ngā Taonga Whitiāhua Me Ngā Taonga

Len Lye

Film still from Colour Flight (1938). Courtesy of the Len Lye Foundation. From material preserved and made available by The New Zealand Archive of Film, Television and Sound Ngā Taonga Whitiāhua Me Ngā Taonga