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Harbouring miniature civilisations which have sprung up inside forgotten vintage treasures, RELICS: A New World Rises opens at Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum on Wednesday, May 29, 2024.
Set in an imagined future in the year 2530 when humans have left the planet due to environmental decline, RELICS tells the story of a world where LEGO minifigures have created new civilisations in the ‘relics’ left behind. Intricate mini-worlds have developed in discarded artefacts, each one inspired and formed by the object they now call home.
Combining clever storytelling and fun creativity with a message of sustainability, RELICS invites audiences young and old alike on a journey of discovery through objects of play and nostalgia.
Crafted by Australian LEGO Masters winners Jackson Harvey and Alex Towler, RELICS has wowed audiences across Australia and broken attendance records at the South Australian Museum. In Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland the exhibition has been expanded to include insights into Jackson and Alex’s creative process and a behind-the-scenes look inside their RELICS workshop.
Thinking far beyond the bricks, Jackson and Alex use masterful design and LEGO engineering to fuse found items with colourful LEGO in large-scale creations.
Among the ‘relics’ are a marauding band of inventors who have reverse-engineered a grandfather clock to build a time machine, a cryonics facility nestled inside a vintage refrigerator to keep minifigures in a frosty state safe from the effects of climate change, and a retro arcade with airlocks and elevators that connect a series of gaming machines to form a futuristic spaceport.
Auckland Museum tumu whakarae chief executive David Reeves says he hopes the exhibition will inspire conversation about the world we leave behind for future generations.
“We are excited to share Jackson and Alex’s thought-provoking creations in RELICS: A New World Rises. People of all ages love LEGO, and this exhibition shows how imagination and creativity can be used to share hugely meaningful messages about our world and our future.
“We hope families and visitors of all ages will enjoy discovering the details of these creations, but also use them as the starting point to talk about our responsibility to protect and conserve our planet. It’s a great combination of the Museum’s role to examine serious topics and to celebrate the joyful, whimsical use of everyday objects,” says David.
Auckland Museum is also inviting tamariki aged 5 to 18 to submit their own LEGO creations to a competition that will see four winners exhibited at the Museum alongside RELICS. Young Kiwi LEGO fans are invited to build a LEGO world inside a familiar object with an ‘Inspired by Aotearoa’ theme. Think LEGO civilisations inside a chilly bin or a minifigure music festival inside a guitar! Full competition details are available at: aucklandmuseum.com/relics
Jackson and Alex are excited to bring their acclaimed art style to Aotearoa for the first time, sharing the joy of their vibrant, thought-provoking creations to families, art lovers, and LEGO fans in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.
Jackson says the exhibition combines the fun of making LEGO creations with stories of sustainability.
“The exhibition explores a real sense of playfulness and fun through storytelling. The LEGO minifigs are the plastic puppets of our stories, and we’ve had so much fun constructing hundreds of narratives with them. We hope people are able to find these stories, and create some of their own,” says Jackson.
Co-creator Alex describes the relics, built over many months as “really weird and kind of wonderful”.
“This concept of RELICS has really inspired a new way of looking at the world for me. Things that we might consider to be rubbish, or useless, or forgotten, have been given a whole new life. It’s a fun way to be creative,” says Alex.
Museum Membership provides unlimited free entry to RELICS: A New World Rises, discounted event tickets and access to exclusive Member-only events. Find out more at: aucklandmuseum.com/membership.
RELICS: A New World Rises comes exclusively to Auckland Museum and opens Wednesday, May 29, until Sunday, October 13, 2024. Exhibition tickets will be available on Tuesday, May 21, at: aucklandmuseum.com/relics
Advance bookings recommended. Tickets are $21 for adults, $11 per child (5 – 15) with four years and under free. Family admission (two adults, two children) is $58, and $19 for all concessions.
