Page 37 - Studio International - May 1965

scope', an organ which when played produces a con­ impress. Ideally, Lye's works are intended to be seen as
stantly changing series of shapes and colours on a performances. They are in fact a latter-day version of the
screen. This Des Esseintes-like instrument is supposed, Ballets Mechaniques for often the movements of several
by Schaffer, to be a realization of chronodynamism. pieces are programmed in balletic sequences.
'the intemporalization of time in which space, move­ This was to have been the case with The Flip and Two
ment, light become integrated as constituent elements'. Twisters at Buffalo, but I wasn't able to wait until the
While there is no denying that the elaborate mechanism two twisters were made to function. The flip, however,
of filters and fixed forms residing behind the screen is a band of steel, suspended by its two ends so that at
produces engaging effects. the flow of suggestive rest it resembles a loop. Slowly it gathers itself upward,
imagery does not produce the fantastic intemporaliza­ turns itself inside out and then with a thunderous roar
tion it aims at. On the contrary, like any abstract motion shivers itself back into its original position. Similarly,
picture, it suffers from its unrelieved continuity, from The Loop, a steel band in the shape of a loop resting on
its homogeneity, from its schematized concept. No a magnetized bed, moves slowly from its resting posi­
amount of undetermined, free-form vagary on the tion into a kind of erotic undulation which reaches
screen can erase the basically mechanical impression various climaxes. Occasionally in its heaving, the loop
the musicscope produces. strikes a suspended ball, producing a beautiful sound .
Like Schaffer, Len Lye is hooked on electronics. His Much of the charm of Lye's conception lies in its
automated, electronically controlled, kinetic sculptures anthropomorphic or mimetic associations. The move­
require a great deal of engineering to function and ments of his steel bands and rods are usually scored in
fairly often they don't function at all. This is all rather such a way that they strongly suggest human rhythms.
endearing for Lye's imagination outstrips his means The slow, organic build-up in certain pieces is like
Len Lye
The Loop 1963/64 most of the time. When his assembled sculptures are at nothing so much as the overture to a belly dance. The
Steel
72 in. wide work, however, Lye's wit and ingenuity cann.ot fail to paradoxical aspects of Lye's mechanized sculptures win

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