The Sydney ‘blocks-buster’ showing a world where humans are replaced by Lego
By Linda Morris
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.
Lego builders Alex Towler and Jackson Harvey, 2020 Lego Master champions who are bringing their Lego Relics exhibition to the Australian Museum.Credit: Steven Siewert
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.
New York’s 88th Street. Credit: Lego Relics@Relics
Discarded vintage items were sourced from salvage yards, online marketplaces and antique stores.
“We like to find objects that are naturally weathered and have lived a life, and it really adds to the authenticity of the pieces,” says Towler.
A rusted Volkswagen Beetle was pulled out of a sandy pit from a back garden in a town a few hours south of Perth. In Beetlesville the mini-figures have appropriated the car engine for their fossil fuel-driven society.
“They’re sort of little caricatures of people and they are the face of Lego, and that point of connection between us and the Lego world,” Harvey says. “So I think there’s just something really compelling about them. And they’re great for telling stories, despite their lack of elbows and knees.”
One of Harvey’s favourite worlds sits inside an antique grandfather clock: “It’s about 300 years old, it was built in London sometime in the 1700s and now it’s been turned into a time machine by the mini-figures.”
Especially for the Australian Museum, the creators are building a relic display using an old antique specimen drawer donated by the museum.
“We’ve responded to the object by creating a museum of humanity, which is, for the mini-figures, natural history,” Towler said.
“We’ve expanded it to paint a picture of a researcher’s office, so there’s a desk and a display cabinet inside as well. In terms of volume it’s going to be one of the biggest displays.”
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