Media Release
27 May 2004
Lights, camera, action and Len Lye to open at Govett-Brewster
The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery opens two new exhibitions: Lights>camera>action: critical moments from the
collections 1969-2004 on June 19 and Len Lye: Art in motion on 12 June.
The Len Lye exhibition explores Lye's fascination with movement in film, kinetics and painting. It provides a rare
opportunity to see all of Lye’s major and ever popular kinetic works at one time and is guaranteed to be a crowd
pleaser. “Due to conservation programming Art in motion (12 June – 15 August) will be the last exhibition of Lye's major
kinetics for an extended period of time, so this exhibition should not to be missed” says Gallery director Greg Burke.
Lye was captivated by motion in all its forms - from tennis to ballet, from cartoons to kung-fu movies. Lye biographer
and Foundation trustee Roger Horrocks says “Len's art of movement is about getting us to REALLY SEE movement, to
understand and enjoy it in a new way. And the other side of that is helping us to appreciate the stillness of a still
image. He talked a lot about responding to motion not just with your eyes but with your body, really empathising with
it. He compared watching a work of kinetic sculpture with watching the Olympics, getting so involved with those athletes
expertly jumping or skating or hurdling that you can feel your own muscles start to tighten up!”
The exhibition draws on the Len Lye Foundation collection housed at the Gallery. The concurrent exhibition
Lights>camera>action: critical moments from the collections 1969-2004 draws on other collections held at the
Gallery including its permanent collection. It reflects the uniqueness and significance of the Govett-Brewster’s
collection and the Gallery’s long commitment to acquiring and presenting works from New Zealand and the Pacific Rim
considered cutting edge at the time of their production.
“From its opening in 1970, the Gallery has collected work at the leading edge of developments in artistic practice. The
Gallery has often been the first institution to collect an artist’s work, including Ralph Hotere’s hard-edge Black
Paintings that represent some of the earliest New Zealand experiments with tough monochrome painting, and are now
celebrated as some of his most resolved works,” says Mr Burke.
Similarly, the Govett-Brewster was the New Zealand gallery that embraced Billy Apple’s 1979 Alterations series. Apple
redesigned the Gallery’s own staircase, which remains today, into a work of art entitled Altered Staircase: the given as
an art political statement 1980.
“On countless occasions, the Gallery has been the initial New Zealand institution to exhibit works by artists, or award
them a major solo exhibition. A renowned example of this is the first New Zealand exhibition of Len Lye’s work presented
at the Gallery in 1977 that forged important links between Lye, the Gallery, and the city of New Plymouth,” says Mr
Burke.
The exhibition, which will showcase recent acquisitions alongside important works by Billy Apple, Sylvie Fleury, Darcy
Lange, Colin McCahon and Michael Parekowhai, will feature a rare showing of Len Lye's kinetic masterpiece Trilogy (a
flip and two twisters) for three weeks only from 19 June to 11 July. Trilogy, described by many international writers
and critics as Lye’s greatest work, will be shown alongside Len Lye: art in motion.
Lights>camera>action includes drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, light work, film, and video. The
exhibition pitches work from different eras together against contemporary culture, illustrating the continuing role that
works from days gone by have in topical discussions about art history and culture.
A section of the exhibition traces a line from Len Lye’s use of Maori and Polynesian motif in his paintings of the 1920s
to contemporary Mâori artists playing with European concerns of evolving New Zealand identity. Painting, often thought
of as the most conservative art medium, is reconsidered as a space for cultural and political debate and as a driver of
a developing national iconography.
New Zealand photography is featured in major suites of work by senior artists Laurence Aberhart, Fiona Clark and Peter
Peryer as well as work by a younger generation of photographers including Gavin Hipkins and Yvonne Todd.
Lights>camera>action reflects the Gallery’s commitment to collecting ‘new media’ and the impact of this in the
development of an artist’s career or in the evolution of experimental art forms such as Billy Apple’s scatter
installation Neon Accumulation 1976, Don Driver’s combines, and Pae White’s major mobile sculpture Songbirds 2001.
“The Gallery has been a leader in collecting moving image based contemporary art, and a number of video and digital
animation works are being presented in the exhibition,” says Mr Burke.
The exhibition presents a number of audience favourites including work by Hany Armanious, Shane Cotton, Tony Fomison,
Jacqueline Fraser, Richard Killeen, Tom Kreisler, Callum Morton, John Reynolds, Peter Robinson, Kathy Temin, Gordon
Walters, and Christopher Williams.
Lights>camera>action: critical moments from the Govett-Brewster collections
19 June – 8 August
ENDS