Len Lye Flip and Two Twisters (Trilogy) 1977, 2016 at the Len Lye Centre. Govett-Brewster Collection. Photo Bryan James
Exhibition
12 Oct 2016 — 26 Mar 2017
Flip and Two Twisters (Trilogy)
Intense, frightening and beautiful, the expertly engineered, Trilogy is Lye’s most compelling sculpture.Suspended from the ceiling, a large loop (Flip) and two long strips of stainless steel (Twisters) are spun and contorted into a motorised dance. Tension builds in the flexing steel, followed by sudden whiplash stops. The thunderous crash of Trilogy reverberates around the gallery, a sound described by Lye as like ‘icicles tumbling down your back’.
Described in Lye’s day as inducing terror in the audience, Trilogy is one of Lye’s masterpieces. A sculptural counterpart to the cinematic thrill of his film Free Radicals (1958), Trilogy holds a special place in the heart of the Govett-Brewster, built for the 1977 exhibition Kinetic Works – the first exhibition of Lye’s work in his homeland – and a historic part of the Govett-Brewster’s collection ever since.
Flip and Two Twisters (Trilogy) is the second in a series of exhibitions presented in the Large Works that explore Len Lye’s large scale kinetic sculpture.
Ko te tuarua tēnei, Flip and Two Twisters (Trilogy), o tētehi whakapapa whakaaturanga e mātai ana i ngā tāreitanga taonga ihirangaranga rarahi a Len Lye. Ko Trilogy tētehi o ngā tino tāreitanga kaha, whakawehi, rerehua anō hoki nā Lye i whao. E tāiri iho ana i te tuanui o te whare ngā porowhita rahi (Flip) me ngā wāhanga maitai waikura kore e rua (Twisters) kua takawiringia, ā, tītaha ana kia kitea tōna haka korikori nei. Ka whai kaha te maitai i tōna piko me tōna tere piu. Ka haruru te papaki o Trilogy ki ngā pātū katoa o te whare ētia nei he hukarere e maringi ana i tō tuaiwi, e ai ki tā Lye.
Kātahi te whakamataku o te taonga nei i tōna wā, he tino hanganga ki a Lye a Trilogy. He taonga i taunaki i tana kiriata whakahiamo, ko Free Radicals (1958), ā, he tino hei piripiri a Trilogy ki Govett-Brewster, te taonga i tāreia mō te whakaaturanga o Kinetic Works i te tau 1977 – te tuatahi o ngā whakaaturanga a Lye i tōna wā kāinga– he taonga tuku iho, nō Govett-Brewster mai anō.
