Today marks the first day in a month and a half long Christmas LEGO exhibition at the Saatchi gallery in London’s fashionable Chelsea area.
Visitors can contribute to the construction of a 1.2metre large LEGO snowman, made from over 32,000 pieces (ish), as well as create their own models from thousands of pieces across 4 different rooms; a Minecraft ‘zone’, Christmas zone (for said giant snowman, among other fun stuff), creative zone (where one can… create!) and one dedicated to Star Wars, which let’s face it, is why I’m writing this article to begin with.
Here’s a gallery of photos I took while at the exhibition: –
The Star Wars room seemed considerably larger than the others (and rightly so!) and housed an impressive collection of vehicles; one of which was the [supposedly] 6ft long Star Destroyer (as advertised), which happened to be the Executor. Though it didn’t look as though it was 6ft long, it was an impressive looking piece and one which garnered much of my attention.
The large scale AT-AT was also utterly gorgeous but, the artist in me was drawn to something else. Past the ships and vehicle displays, past the tables where visitors can build their own Star Wars vehicles whilst gawping at a giant LEGO Death Star and past the stunning photographs of scenes (sort of) from the films, against the clean white wall at the far back of the space, was a display of stunning portraits of some of our favourite characters, all made from LEGO pieces.
Using the same technique as Chuck Close’s magnificent paintings, which use optical blending to form the image from a distance, visitors are treated to a portrait of Leia in Hoth fatigues, A New Hope Chewie and Han as well as the ‘Chewie, we’re home’ shot featuring Chewie and Han from The Force Awakens. All seemingly built from single LEGO 1×1 pieces, these portraits, at close quarters were very much a relief, and a half finished 3P0 portrait demonstrated this effectively. [Mosaics were created and lent to the exhibit by friend of Jedi News, Ralph Doering].
And while we did take a photo with the ‘life-size’ LEGO Father Christmas or Santa Claus, Star Wars fans might be more inclined to snap pics with their favourite troopers or bounty hunter (*ahem Boba Fett cough*); members of the Imperial Reaper Squadron I’m sure.
All in all, it’s a great little show and worth the £15 ticket price. The allotted 2hr time slot will be more than enough time to take the show in and build away should you feel so inclined. And as always, you’re free to roam the rest of the Saatchi gallery for free.
The exhibition by BrickLive runs from 25th November 2017 till 7th January 2018 and you can purchase tickets from the Saatchi Gallery or BrickLive directly.
