The Sydney ‘blocks-buster' showing a world where humans are replaced by Lego
Once upon a child's playground, Lego was those annoying plastic bricks that would endlessly entertain preschoolers.
Today, it is a recognised artistic medium, fascinating for adults and children alike, seeding a TV show and a new Australian Museum exhibition.
Relics, A New World Rises – opening in August – imagines a future world where humans have pushed the environment one step too far and it has been repopulated by some 2000 mini-figures.
Best friends Alex Towler and Jackson Harvey, winners of the first Lego Masters television series, have built 15 miniature civilisations within forgotten and reclaimed objects.
A version of Manhattan's 88th Street has been installed inside a hollowed-out piano, and a 1950s-inspired Studz Diner comes to life inside a 75-year-old jukebox.
'Lego has changed so much since we grew up with it. If you remember those classic red, blue, yellow bricks, now there's so many colours and parts,' Harvey says. 'It's just a really fascinating creative medium that you can use for just about anything.'
The Australian Museum's chief executive and director Kim McKay announced Relics as its winter 'blocks-buster' on Tuesday, a follow-up to Machu Picchu and the Golden Empires of Peru.
Towler and Harvey conceived of the exhibition in 2020. It took them two years to build in their workshop in Perth and they have since toured their Lego realms to the South Australia and Melbourne museums and New Zealand, adding as they go.
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