Bad one, Len

About three weeks ago I took a visitor to the Len Lye Centre. I paid the $15 fee and we slowly wandered up the long dark passageway to the first floor room, which was even darker. It contained some vertical, stationary rods that were difficult to see clearly.

We left and wandered up to the second floor room, which was in daylight. The display consisted of seven long vertical steel rods – one in the middle and six evenly spaced around the circumference of a large circle. Atop each was a pair of gonad-shaped receptacles. The attendant advised that the show would commence in 13 minutes. We decided to wait. Near the time, the attendant handed out cheap earmuffs – we waited in anticipation.

Then it started. The rods began to move, faster and faster. The gonads contain steel balls that shriek in pure agony – slowly building up to a deafening crescendo of profound cacophony. There were not enough earmuffs, so I handed mine to the woman beside me and used my hands instead. Then I silently shrieked in agony, cursing my assumed stoicism.

We left the LLC – ears ringing in full tinnitus disharmony. My guest was not amused.

So, that was the total of the Len Lye exhibits that NPDC managed to put on show over the Christmas holidays. Surely this illustrates, not just a great artistic immaturity, but also a grossly unsophisticated arrogance on the part of NPDC and the person(s) who arranged the exhibit. And NPDC still wants to charge for this ‘artistic’ crap. John Patterson, Oakura