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Friday 7 October 2011

The Art of the Brick

A few week's back Ava, Lola and I travelled to Melbourne to visit the USA consulate to attend our visa interview. Due to an early morning interview time and the available flight times we had to arrive in Melbourne the day before our interview. I decided to make a trip of it and show the girls a little bit of Melbourne before we head off to the USA.

Being the cultural and artistic heart of Australia, Melbourne always seems to have at least one or two wonderful exhibitions on the go at any given time. This time was no exception with Federation Square playing host to New York artist Nathan Sawaya's The Art of the Brick.

Now, an art exhibition may not sound like the most exciting place to visit for a four year old until you realise the medium chosen by Nathan Sawaya for his work: LEGO!




Ava loved the exhibition and was captivated by the colourful and imaginative creations. As was Lola when she eventually woke up from her sleep. There's something quite accessible about artworks created in such a familiar medium. It really draws children in to appreciate the beauty that can be created with something they see and play with everyday. Maybe Ava will be inspired to build something other than just houses with her Lego!

A tremendous amount of hard work and creativity has gone into each piece and they are just wonderful.

The  dinosaur skeleton in particular is quite amazing. The girls couldn't get enough of that one.

Roar!

Ava pretending to be scared

More "scared" Ava

A little snack for the dinosaur?

Lola loved the dinosaur too

There are a few sculptures of people in the exhibition and Ava struck a similar pose next to each and every one of them for a photo. One sculpture, in particular, is set up with just that in mind. A sculpture of a figure deep in thought in a chair has an empty chair next to it for visitors to pose in. I think I took photos for about three other visitors in this chair while we were there! The three of us all took turns as well.

Ava strikes a pose

Posing again

I love this one!

My turn. Isn't it good that Ava knows how to use the camera!
If only Lola was awake

Lola's turn - awake this time!

I'm not really sure what I would pick as my favourite. I really liked the colourful skulls against the black wall - although Ava was a little scared of these to begin with! Very Mexican "Day of the Dead".

Scary? No!

Happy skulls

Happy skulls

I keep being drawn to the simplicity of the world globe. I do have a little obsession with maps so that particular artwork was always going to get me!  I want one of these for myself :)

Ava's world

Lola's world

There were so many wonderful pieces. Here are a few more of them.

An apple a day...


Piggy and burger at the ticket counter

Ava with mini Melbourne

Peace out

Raindrops

Singing Music Note

"His hands are falling off but it's ok; he's not real. He's made of Lego".
Words of wisdom from Ava.

Kanagaroo
Ava attempting to do the splits amongst the artworks

At the entrance of the exhibition is a wall covered in little squares of lego that will eventually become a mural of sorts. Children are invited to contribute to the piece by creating their own little square. They are given a square of Lego base coloured like a paint-by-numbers painting. They then fill in their square with the corresponding colours from tubs with thousands of little tiny Lego pieces. Each square is then put into its place on the mural.

Ava creates her piece of the mural

The finished square

Ava's square is added to the mural

There were still quite a few pieces to go when we were there but we were told that it would be finished in time for the AFL grand final and was therefore a football related image. You can click here to see the finished mural which is being auctioned off to raise money for defibrillators for local football clubs.

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