The Long Dream of Waking: New Perspectives on Len Lye.

Christchurch, New Zealand: Canterbury University Press, 2017. . 8vo. 224 pp. Very Good+. Soft Cover. Illustrated paper wraps with French folds. Color and B&W plates throughout.From the Collection of the Art Historian Peter Selz. ISBN: 9781927145968 1927145961.Recognized internationally as one of the twentieth century's great modernist innovators, New Zealand artist Len Lye is most famous for his avant-garde experimental films and for his astonishing and playful kinetic sculptures. Always fascinated by the interplay of movement and light, this extraordinary artist also expressed himself in photography, drawing, painting and poetry. During his lifetime he was better known in the art capitals of North America and Europe than in the country of his birth, but that has changed since the establishment of the foundation dedicated to his works at New Plymouth's Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and particularly following the opening, in 2015, of the impressive and much-admired Len Lye Centre. In this timely collection of essays, writers from New Zealand and overseas consider Lye's assured place in modern art from a variety of fascinating and thought-provoking angles. He thought of his creations as emerging from `the long dream of waking'. And thanks to this collection of essays, we too can be drawn into his long dream and come to see his remarkable achievements through fresh eyes. "The third substantial collection of essays to be devoted to Lye's work since 2000 ... The current publication coincides with Christchurch Art Gallery's exhibition Stopped Short by Wonder"Contents: Introduction / Paul Brobbel, Wystan Curnow and Roger Horrocks. --History. Len Lye's kinetic sculptures / Peter Selz. Between art and engineering / Paul Brobbel, Aaron Kreisler, Shayne Gooch, John Matthews and Evan Webb --Aesthetics. Cinematic sculpture / Malcolm Le Grice. Motion, time, energy / Roger Horrocks. 'Live' motion, pure movement and liberation : Len Lye's kinetic imaginary / Luke Smythe --Contexts. Repatriating Len Lye : the figure of motion and its transformations / Wynstan Curnow. Len Lye as a 'Sydney' artist / Rex Butler and A.D.S. Donaldson. 'When London swung a bit' : Len Lye in inter-war Britain / Scott Anthony. 'v. spinkly. 9 flutter & blink' : archiving Len Lye / Sarah Davy --The Artist at work. From jazz to 'sound construction' / Roger Horrocks. Shadowgraphs : photographic portraits by Len Lye / Geoffrey Batchen. Behind the scenes : The base in Len Lye's sculptures / Evan Webb. Trade tattoos : animation stencils and readymade movement / Alla Gadassik.