Len Lye ~ body English
19 August - 1 October 2006

 You can make words be things - you always have - and that is better than  trying to make them say things. 
- Scottish poet Alastair Reid in a letter to Lye, 1961

When does a word become a thing? How do you read a picture? These are questions asked by the latest exhibition Len Lye ~ body English at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery.

Curated by Tyler Cann, Len Lye ~ body English is the latest exhibition to draw on the Len Lye Collection housed at the Gallery.

The exhibition looks at the close relationship between text and image in Lye's work, particularly that of the 1930s. It features Lye's Surrealist photograms, poetry, and films, as well as six hand-printed books for which he designed the covers, including his own No Trouble.

For the first time, Lye's poetry will sit alongside some of these works, shedding new light on their curious imagery.

 "Though he often pitted himself against film or art that was illustrative or "literary", Lye's visual work was often tied to the written word," says Cann, "His free-flowing poetry and prose, fanciful letters and stories show the same appreciation for the music of language as he had for the colour, rhythm and motion of visual art."

"Body English" is a colloquial term used to describe the movement's people make when trying to influence an object (such as a ball) from afar.  Lye used the term to describe an awareness of the body he wanted to create in his work, and also to describe his process of "verbal doodling".

Len Lye ~ body English opens at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery on 19 August 2006

For additional information or visual materials, contact:

Tyler Cann
Curator, Len Lye Collection
tylerc@govettbrewster.com
+64-6-759 6713

Lauren Andreoli
Communications Co-ordinator 
laurena@govettbrewster.com
+64-6-759-6717