Tusalava (silent)
This animation was strongly influenced by Aboriginal Australian and Pacific art styles, and features a figure based on a witchetty grub. Simple life forms evolve in tandem, becoming more complex and more conflicted until their eventual destruction. ‘Tusalava’ is a Samoan word that suggests things going full circle, living out a lifespan.
Other versions of this film exist with composed and improvised soundtracks, as detailed by Paul Brobbel (Len Lye Curator at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery / Len Lye Centre)
Collection reference F1861
Year 1929
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Experimental Animation (Peanut Vendor)
Len Lye made this experimental stop-motion film in the hope of attracting sponsors for a larger animation project. He constructed the monkey puppet from scratch and used his first wife, a rumba dancer, as a model for its movements. The animation is set to a recording of “Peanut Vendor” by Red Nichols and his Five Pennies, who also performed one of the songs in Colour Flight.
Collection reference F8669
Year 1933
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Kaleidoscope
This early Direct Film was sponsored by Churchman Cigarettes, and features abstract, cigarette-like shapes without directly showing the product. Geometric stencils dance across the screen to the hot sounds of Don Baretto and his Cuban Orchestra.
Collection reference F5457
Year 1935
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A Colour Box
A Colour Box was Len Lye’s first Direct Film animation, in which patterns dance and wiggle across the screen to the sounds of a Cuban band. Most movies in the mid-1930s were black-and-white with a clear narrative, so A Colour Box was an unusual experience for cinema audiences. It was sponsored by the British General Post Office (GPO), hence the text about parcel prices at the end.
Collection reference F9061
Year 1935
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Rainbow Dance
In Rainbow Dance, Len Lye throws together live action footage of dancer Rupert Doone with riotous animation that makes use of multiple Direct Film techniques. A flood of candy-coloured stencilled and hand-painted imagery jostles all over the screen against an ever-changing background, before cutting at the end to an amusingly stiff promotion for the General Post Office’s banking service.
Collection reference F2147
Year 1935
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The Birth of the Robot
This stop-motion animation was made as an advertisement for Shell Oil, and depicts an optimistic view of the future where motor oil makes everything better. Shell commissioned Len Lye to make The Birth of the Robot for cinema distribution on the strength of The Peanut Vendor, his previous experimental animation with puppets.
Collection reference F9625
Year 1936
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N or NW
N or NW is one of Len Lye’s live action short films, which he characteristically used as an opportunity to experiment with visual storytelling techniques and allude to his theories about the unconscious. A young couple’s quarrel is worsened when the boy uses the wrong postcode on his letter of apology, delaying its delivery.
Collection reference F4695
Year 1937
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Trade Tattoo
The Post Office was a long-standing patron of Len Lye’s work. For his third GPO commission, Lye combined live action ‘found footage’, stencilled animation and a new colouration technique that required significant skill. To keep the rhythm of British industry moving, viewers are urged to mail their letters by 2pm.
Collection reference F1739
Year 1937
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Colour Flight
Another example of Len Lye’s ability to turn an ad into a creative outlet, Colour Flight was commissioned by Imperial Airlines. Soundtracked by Cuban rumba and Dixieland jazz, the movement on screen answers directly to changes in the music. Showers of stencilled crescent moons, shooting stars, planets, birds and planes evoke the concept of flight.
Collection reference F9064
Year 1938
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Swinging the Lambeth Walk
In Swinging the Lambeth Walk, Len Lye splices together several versions of a then-popular song, accompanying the music with a lively abstract visual track. The visuals are carefully synced to the different arrangements, with new sounds introducing new shapes and motions.
Collection reference F3457
Year 1939
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