More on Man

This interesting note from Roger Horrocks, Len Lye’s biographer, on the Man Ray video posted last week. “Not sure if you know Man Ray's account of this film. He says he was shocked to discover that Tzara had announced a Dada evening that would include a film by Ray -- but Ray had only a few film sequences ready. The programme was scheduled for the following evening. How to make a film in a day? He decided to create some rayogram strips to round out the film. Salt and pepper formed the basis of one strip, and pins and thumb tacks another. Ray says he had no idea how such strips would look on the screen until they were projected; but he decided that it would all be over so fast, it didn’t really matter. He combined them with the other sequences and screened them under the title ‘Return to Reason’. Unfortunately Ray had not yet learned how to splice film properly, and the film broke twice, producing howls from hostile members of the audience! All very Dada.”
Image: Man Ray’s model Kiki makes a guest appearance in La retour à la raison