The Art of the Brick presents a stunning collection of brick creations by Nathan Sawaya, famed LEGO artist (and LEGO Master Builder) from New York. Staged at the Level 3 Galleries in the ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands, Sawaya’s creations dance between thought-provoking sculptures with the playful medium of colourful LEGO bricks.
This exhibition spans the entire third level of the ArtScience Museum. Being a LEGO fan – or more accurately, I was crazy over MINDSTORMS years ago – I couldn’t miss this. Sawaya’s works go beyond the common use of LEGO (“Miniland” zones at Legoland). Recreating cities and buildings? So arbitrary and bland.
Hands
Swimmer
Face
Yellow – The most iconic sculpture (and overused in marketing materials, I must say).
In each room, there’s a small station depicting Sawaya’s construction process. This is the first one, showing loose LEGO bricks.
Peace
Rain
The raindrops are actually 3D.
Conveniently located beside Rain – Make your own rain!
Blue Guy Sitting
An Artist’s View
An Artist’s View – yep, even the painting is made from bricks.
The next room is known as The Catwalk, with human figures, typical catwalk music and strobe lighting.
Disintegration
The Thinker
Circle
Square
After the Catwalk is a brighter space, showcasing 2D LEGO portraits, including a few of Sawaya’s girlfriend. There are also a few interactive booths
Sing
“Fun”
Parthenon
The Emotion Box is deadly silent and dim. The use of fog here (which totally smells like the one used for Halloween Horror Nights) adds to the overall creepiness.
Security guards checking the Blue Skull, comparing it with a photo in a catalogue. Seems like a tiny part is off or something.
Mask – dramatically unmasked.
The largest showcase – a stunning LEGO skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. It’s so big that it does not stand on its own (unlike most of the other sculptures) and has to be supported with wires.
Lastly, the ArtScience Museum in LEGO form. This is one of the newly commissioned work at the Museum.
The last area of the exhibition (before the souvenir store) is the Play and Build zone where there are several tables, with boxes of LEGO bricks and brick mats.
It’s a magical experience to step into Nathan Sawaya’s transformative world of bricks. It would take about slightly more than an hour to walk through this exhibition, and if you stay at the interactive zones, possibly hours.
The Art of the Brick is now showing in the ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands from now till 14 April 2013.
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I visited the exhibition immediately after coming back to Singapore!
I have been a fan of Lego since very young. I remember that my favorite set is the one with four brick insects.
But since I am here and I move a lot, I can not buy too many Lego toys as they are a bit hard to carry around….
I’m a fan of Lego too, although I only had one set when I was young. It was a helicopter. I modified it into some sort of sea-plane, I think 😀
After that one set, I didn’t touch Lego until secondary school – I joined my school’s robotics club. It was fun as I had several Mindstorms set to play and program with.
Well, the good thing about LEGO is that you can always dismantle it! Can you leave your things in KE7 during vacation, or you have to leave?
Also, have you been to Legoland Malaysia yet?
True..
If I could find a box for the bricks then it won’t be that troublesome.
The Lego head container seems to work.
I can leave things in my hall with a weekly charge. But that’s not what worries me. I have moved over 5 times since I came to the country. I just hate moving….because I bought a lot of toys , CDs, movies and games….
I have not been to Legoland.
We did plan to go during recess but one of my friends got really ill…
It was a terrific experience. Especially now that I am building my own models using nanoblock. I really like his more abstract pieces involving the human body as well as recreated paintings. Think the interactive portrait photo brick transformer where the software transforms your face portrait to a “legolised” version was most intriguing.