BRICK HOUSE
HOUSTON MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE TURNS LEGOS INTO ART.
To stage “The Art of the Brick,” a traveling exhibition comprising more than 100 works made entirely of Legos, the Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS) made space for a special, hands-on STEAM gallery. In it, visitors who feel inspired can build their own masterpieces with the iconic, plastic bricks.
Lawyer-turned-artist Nathan Sawaya, who traveled to Houston last week to help unveil his globetrotting exhibition, says when he received his first set of Legos as a 5-year-old on Christmas morning, he “immediately was hooked.”
He quickly discovered that the fun of a Lego set was not building the model pictured on the box, he says, but using his imagination to dream up his own creations.
When he wished he owned a dog, he says, he built a three-dimensional pet out of Legos. To play a game of magician, he fashioned a top hat. Building a Lego rocket made pretending to be an astronaut more realistic.
Looking back, “it was a seminal moment,” he says. “Anything I wanted to be … I could just build it.”
Starry Lego Night
At the entrance of “The Art of the Brick,” guests watch a short video interview in which Sawaya talks about his lifelong enthusiasm for the toys. When the video ends, the screen raises to allow guests to enter the first gallery, “Past Masters.”
In it, Sawaya has used Legos to re-create great works, including the “Mona Lisa” and Michelangelo’s “David.” Bricked artworks hang on the wall like framed paintings. In “Girl With a Pearl Earring,” the earring protrudes from the “canvas” in the form of a rounded, translucent Lego.
In Sawaya’s version of “The Scream,” the familiar, openmouthed central figure is a separate, three-dimensional work that sits apart from the bricked background.
Other galleries showcase an oversize game of jacks, a row of massive crayons, a towel hung to dry over a pair of flip-flops, and a large, upright pencil that scripts the word “fun” in cursive Legos.
Each work’s placard provides its total Lego count. The largest work, a 20-foot T. rex skeleton, is made with 80,020 bricks.
Around the corner, a life-size
yellow man (21,054 bricks) sits on a real park bench. Visitors are encouraged to sit next to him and tell him about their day.
“Sometimes it’s just their jaws dropping when they see the size,” Sawaya says of the reaction he observes from children at the exhibition.
He points out, however, that Lego enthusiasts are all ages, adding that the toy is “very generational.”
“The very same bricks that I had as a child still snap together with the brand-new sets,” he says.
Legos are also universal, he says. “In a sense … they’re their own language.”
“Wherever we go, even if I don’t speak the language, I can meet folks and speak through the brick in a way.”
Legos in motion
The sculptures are affixed with adhesive and travel from city to city as completed works. Some are comprised, in part, with loose Legos, which Sawaya arranged on-site at HMNS.
For example, in one sculpture, a man rips his chest apart, allowing Legos to spill out onto the surface.
In another depiction of the human form, a life-size body is face down and swimming. From overhead, a device projects blue lights to mimic waves in a swimming pool.
Elsewhere, a large Lego fist holds a small Lego body. A man wraps his arms around dark clouds that threaten skyscrapers. One wall is covered with massive Lego skulls. There are couples in embrace, kissing.
Made with 12,275 bricks, “X-ray” is a multicolored body with an opening for a red Lego heart in place of the organ.
A red, strapless gown seems to float, with individual pieces suspended in the air and trailing behind the dress’ train.
The dress is not attached to a body but, for the record, Sawaya has in the past made wearable Lego apparel.
Other works include a portrait of Andy Warhol and an umbrella that hangs from the ceiling.
Art meets architecture
Sawaya works almost exclusively with square and rectangular bricks in order to create the right angles in his art.
When close to the pieces, one can see the small toys’ sharp corners, “but the hope is, when you back away, that those corners blend into curves,” he says. “That’s the magic of Lego bricks.”
In the STEAM gallery near the exhibition’s exit, guests get to be the builder. There are small freebuild stations along with the chance to build a car, then time it on a track.
One area is devoted to architectural wonders. Guests can build a bridge or flip through a book of pictures before attempting to make a mini Tower Bridge in London.
One challenge asks visitors to see how many objects they can build using only six Legos or to build with their eyes closed.
Of the STEAM gallery, an exhibition component that has been offered only twice before, Sawaya says, “it allows them to connect with the art very easily and, hopefully, they’re inspired to immediately create on their own.”