A re-construction of Witch Dance was added to the Len Lye collection last year. It was shown in ‘Experimental Moves’ curated by Sarah Wall, Assistant Len Lye Curator, and is proving a popular addition to the exhibition. (See http://www.govettbrewster.com/whats-on/)
Witch Dance, is a small work where several wire figures topped with bells, dance in unison. It anticipates larger works such as Wand Dance that the Foundation is currently building.
Stuart Robb, New Plymouth based design engineer, re-constructed the work under the supervision of the Foundation and with the support of the Len Lye Centre. Stuart has a long association with the Foundation having built and repaired several of Len’s sculptures. His reconstruction of Witch Dance is beautifully crafted and a faithful rendition of the original work. The original work can now, happily be retired and preserved from further ware and tear.
Witch Dance (a.k.a. Ritual Dance) was first shown at ‘Bounding Steel Sculpture’, an exhibition of several of Lye’s kinetic works shown at the Howard Wise Galley in New York in 1965 Lye said of the work:
“It looked effective when the six other upright rods all came from the same centre of motion but all have a kind of slightly different action, so you could watch them for quite a while comparing their motion”
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