Len Lye
Len Lye, Sky Snakes, 1965 (2019 reconstruction). Len Lye Foundation Collection, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery. Photograph Bryan James
Exhibition
3 Sep 2022 — 12 Feb 2023
Len Lye: Sky Snakes
Seven swirling Sky Snakes make a return to the Gallery for summer.
Len Lye, Sky Snakes, 1965 (2019 reconstruction). Len Lye Foundation Collection, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery. Photograph Bryan James
Len Lye, Sky Snakes, 1965 (2019 reconstruction). Len Lye Foundation Collection, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery. Photograph Sam Hartnett.
Len Lye, Sky Snakes, 1965 (2019 reconstruction). Len Lye Foundation Collection, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery. Photograph Sam Hartnett.
A large-scale kinetic sculpture from the Len Lye Foundation and Team Zizz! Sky Snakes generally performs at quarter-past and quarter-to each hour during opening times.
The popular seven, ceiling mounted, spinning Sky Snakes return to the Gallery.
Len Lye developed the first Sky Snake - a fantastic dancing kinetic sculpture - in 1965, debuting the work at the Albright–Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York. More recently, the work has been reconstructed for the Museum Tinguely exhibition in Basel, Switzerland.
In accordance with Lye's plans and notes, Sky Snakes - developed in 2019 by the Len Lye Foundation with the support of Team Zizz - presents seven rotating, spinning chains, raised above the viewer to create the harmonic wave patterns or figures familiar to Lye's other works. Traveling waves move up and down the chain, with a brass ball at the bottom end of the chain representing the head of a snake.
