My first impressions as I walked into the exhibition were
'Are these just Toy Lego blocks?, Are they for children? Weren't they actually made by children? Am I at the wrong exhibition? 'The truth was they were not children. They were grownups!
I kept on asking myself 'why did they made something that look like a kindergarten children's work? My wife who were with me asked me "Is this art?". The little artists were quite brave in terms of how they made their art works with Lego blocks.
"The artists have laid themselves open to the familiar heckle of "my five year old could do better than that" by recreating some of modern art's most famous and infamous works - in Lego" -Sam Jones, op. cit., p2.
Art Crazy Nation is inspired by an UK artist group called YBA(Young British Artists). Famous artists like Damien Hurst and Tracey Emin are also members of this group. The YBAs were named after exhibitions of the same name at the Saatchi Gallery, from 1992 onwards.
The works done by the Little Artists were much of respect for the YBA artists rather than just copying their works and parodying their work.
At art school they consider themselves baby artists, and now they've grown up to be little. - Natasha Beckman, Curator
"We strated using Lego because we wanted our own world to play in - we weren't into the real art world at all" - Build-your-own Britart, Telegraph, Nov 2004, p 2
I haven't quite seen an artist who made art work, of course there a Lego builders who create some amazing thing like robots, buildings, but in terms of "Art", this is probably the first time to see Art being done by Lego. If they are the first who achieved this, I'd say they introduced art to Lego world.
By the time I finished looking around the gallery I felt their art work is very simple but it was done with honesty and pure heart. They were a child's version of the grown up artists.
At the exhibition I saw many parents bringing their kids to show those little Art works. The the works were displayed at lower level so even small children can look at them. I was quite sure most of the children (and probably including "an Older Child" like me) did not have any idea what those art works meant. Even I had known only few of the original artists. But I was sure that the kids enjoyed what was made of Lego and probably with their parents' brief explanations they might realised there's something called 'Art'. I looked and felt nice to me because some of the children who went to the exhibition in the future would recall this experience and smile. And it's surely a very nice way to introduce art to children.
When I used to live in Italy. Some fancy shops selling designer made things like furniture and lightings used to sell this Ironmans. I assumed that some European designer designed it. Even in NZ when I went to shopping malls I saw shops selling these. I thought they were imported from Europe. But you see this is a NZ designer's work! Although I was not born in NZ, I felt so proud.
Amazingly detailed and well built! I wonder if these houses were used for religious reasons like ceremonies. Or just a place where people gather to discuss problems and plans to keep their towns.
The scanned visitor's guide map. There was a special event to view dinosaur. The museum looks small in the map but the museum is not small. Believe me you can spend one whole day to view everything in detail.
Warhol and Basquiat Presented, 2008, Digital Print
Quinn’s Blood Head, 2004, Lego
