Len Lye, 1935.

This film was commissioned by the General Post Office. Its role as an advertisement for the GPO is wholly disguised by the abstract images and rhythmic movements timed to rumba music, whereas the instructive function is contradictorily brought to the foreground. Lye’s filmic process is not always conducted with a camera, but sometimes rather by drawing figures directly onto the filmstrip itself.

Norman McLaren, 1942.

An animation created by applying an ink pen directly to celluloid film, wherein a hen dances to French-Canadian and Scottish folksongs.

Norman McLaren, 1949,

Fluid lines and figures drawn directly onto the film strip move to the changing rhythms of three pieces of jazz music performed by the Oscar Peterson trio.

Norman McLaren, 1952.

In this film, McLaren uses the actors as though they were dolls; through editing, the figures appear to move and float.

Norman McLaren, 1965.

“Mosaic” could be called a prime example of cinematographic op-art. As is true for op-art more generally, it is strictly geometric in construction and non-figurative, using fast wavy complementary or contrasting colors and rippling copy effects.

Jan Lenica, 1959,

Monsieur Téte sets himself in opposition to conformism. The objector comes into enduring conflict with the society, until the friction wears him down, and –finally acquiescing to obedience– accepts the harness they would place on him. Ultimately, he is decorated, and with every trinket he loses his own “face”.

Yoji Kuri, 1964.

Aos brings forth a world unbridled by any taboo. Kuri here follows in the tradition of Japanese pornography, one without feelings of shame or complications.

Yoji Kuri, 1966,

“Au fou!” is a spectacle of death and suicide in a society where offered help can have disastrous consequences. There is something uncanny and yet banal in death and suicide: both happen, and even those who are supposedly saved from the latter are eventually found by the former.

Yoji Kuri, 1967.

This film consists of a 10-minute collage of live-scenes and animation– the sequence that is playing itself out in the mind of the man. The work contains two particularly gorgeous sections of animation.

Animation: Tjebbe van Tijen en Geoffrey Shaw.
The Netherlands, 1967

A singularly poignant kinetic-graphic-musical experiment with a mesmerising rhythm. The stroboscopic effect and the driving music created by Willem Breuker coalesce into a piece that is as unrelentingly gruelling as it is compelling.