For his 1935 film, A Colour Box, New Zealand artist Len Lye painted abstract marks with watercolours directly onto clear celluloid film stock. Rather than using a camera to expose imagery from real life, Lye’s experiment with painting on film became one of the first forays into the handmade art film.
Using Lye’s innovations as a thematic springboard, curators Martyn Jolly and Tony Oates have brought together 10 artists whose work incorporates combinations of light, projection and performance. “The central premise is that light has this magical way of articulating movement and presence,” Oates explains.
“There’s a long history of optical science that blends sight, light and cognition all in one, so a lot of the artists in Light Source work with film to articulate colour and light, while others are working with the pure materiality of light.”
With much of the exhibition presented as screen-based work and largescale interactive installations, it is difficult not to become completely immersed in colour and light. Canberra-based Nicci Haynes creates coloured animations and combines their light-giving ability with mechanical structures; the resulting works recall the aesthetics of Lye’s films. As Oates says, “Haynes short-circuits disused technology in exciting ways, re-enlivening them to discover dynamics of movement, colour and the flux of light in time.” Mike Leggett’s filmed example of optical mixing using colours drawn from nature is included in Red+Green+Blue (1975) while Taree Mackenzie explores colour and pattern in her intricately constructed sets and light boxes.
In conjunction with the exhibition is a program of screenings featuring archival video work from the National Film and Sound Archives and a series of German abstract films. Live performance and happenings also expand the reach of the exhibition’s exploration into light and colour. As Oates puts it, “We are shining light through glass, projectors, cameras and lenses. It’s a history within Australia that’s not exactly untold but a little unheralded.”
Light Source
Drill Hall Gallery
Until 19 October
This article was originally published in the September/October 2025 print edition of Art Guide Australia.
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