Inspired by and adapted from, film stills from one of Lye's most admired pieces of cinema, Free Radicals, 1958.

 
In 1958 Len Lye produced one of the world’s most admired pieces of cinema, the short experimental film Free Radicals. Lye's five minutes of dancing zig zag lines scratched directly into black film was a milestone in the history of cinema. Peers in the world of experimental cinema acclaimed Lye as the artist who had reduced film to its core elements of motion and light. Decades later the director Martin Scorsese would call Lye a ‘master’ filmmaker.

 
All sales from this merchandise help support art and exhibition making at New Zealand’s contemporary art museum.

Artwork Caption:
Len Lye, Free Radicals, 1958 (revised 1979), 
4 min, 16mm, b&w, transferred to digital video,
Courtesy of the Len Lye Foundation. Digital version by Park Road Post Production and Weta Digital Ltd from material preserved and made available by Ngā Taonga: Sound and Vision.