Sound and language, image and text are strongly connected in the vibrant work of New Zealand born modernist artist Len Lye (1901-1980). In addition to Lye’s films, poems and sculptures, the exhibition Old Genes: Artists reading Len Lye presents the work of five contemporary artists engaging with Lye’s legacy and the role of language in his work.

Phil Dadson contemplates Lye’s Universe in a new video work in which performers substitute language for sound drawn from the body. Tessa Laird produces ‘facsimilies’ of Lye’s sketchbook pages, themselves hand copied and illustrated by Lye as he studied in Australasian museums and libraries. Dane Mitchell read several of Lye’s poems into blown glass forms as theywere being made. Encasing and materialising words, Andy Thomson and Daniel von Sturmer collaborate on a mysterious vitrine full of kinetic mechanisms, glowing light and language.

With these works, Old Genes: Artists reading Len Lye presents a fresh look at the legacy of Len Lye within contemporary New Zealand art.

Curated by Tyler Cann