Trade Tattoo

Trade Tattoo went further than Rainbow Dance in manipulating the Gasparcolor process. Starting from black-and-white outtakes of GPO Film Unit documentaries such as Night Mail, Len Lye transformed the footage in what has been called the most intricate film printing and color grading job ever attempted. Animated words and patterns merge with the live action to create images as complex and multi-layered as a Cubist painting. The Cuban Lecuona Band provided the music, and through its dynamic rhythms the film seeks, in Lye's words, to convey “a romanticism about the work of the everyday in all walks of life.”