PYE 1-4

by Ian HELLIWELL
2017 / Super 8mm & Video / color-b&w / sound / 1S / 48' 20

PYE 1 - KINETIC - focuses on the 1970 Kinetics exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London, reshaping Pye’s 200 feet reel of Super 8 film he shot in and around the event. Kinetics featured an international line up of more than 60 sculptors, and Pye’s work was represented by his remarkable Revolving Tower, which he later set up temporarily on Clapham Common, to the bewilderment and fascination of passers-by. Helliwell has identified all the sculptures captured in the footage, and synthesized electronic sounds to accompany the kinetic activity of each one.

PYE 2 - GEOMETRIC - takes Pye’s super 8 footage for a proposed mural project, into a completely abstract direction, removing it from its original purpose of simulating the interior of a London Underground station as a passenger descends into it. Pye had created paper models into which he could track with his Super 8 camera, revealing a shifting geometry that suggested a different kind of abstract journey. With colour inversion, superimposition and electronic music, the functional footage takes on a new life of motion, colour and sound.

PYE 3 - METALLIC - An examination of Pye’s stainless steel period of the late 1960s and early 70s, culminating with the fabrication and siting of his sculpture Zemran, on London’s Southbank. The Super 8 archive of Pye at work, plus examples of his metal sculpture, is augmented with photos and new film and video shot by Helliwell. Interviewed especially for the soundtrack, Pye reflects on his output of the 60s and 70s, giving background and insights into his working methods and life as a sculptor. Random vox pop comments recorded next to Zemran, and an array of Helliwell’s electronically generated sounds, add to the audiovisual tapestry woven around Pye’s modern and still futuristic looking stainless steel creations.

PYE 4 - GRAPHIC - Utilising unused Super 8 film shot for Pye 3, of the Zemran sculpture at the Southbank Centre, and Taylor’s Lane power station in West London, this footage has been drawn over with marker pens, immersed in bleach and played back in negative, to bring a wholly different perspective to the form of these impressive structures.

1 PRINT IN DISTRIBUTION


distribution format Digital file on server (SD)
screen 1,37 - Standard (single screen)
speed 25 fps
sound sound
original language English
rental fee 189,00 €