When a global comic universe, a toy brand empire and cultural institution collide they have the potential to act as a combined superpower of knowledge, education and inquisition. Sadly this exhibition doesn’t go there, opting instead to show room after room of the same thing, albeit with neat optical tricks and the occasional clever moment.
Starting with the general introduction to the World Of DC Comics, the first three rooms introduce the cast of characters and the techniques used by LEGO® artist Nathan Sawaya. The next few rooms exhaust the establishment of the exhibition by walking the visitor through various worlds of the DC Universe including Fortress Of Solitude and Themyscira. The heroes and villains each get their turn with DC Light and DC Dark featuring unsubtle minimalist, pop art and cubist nods along the way. Delightful moments of surprising technical skill and original thought include the sculpture for Wonder Woman’s Invisible Plane and a 3D Bizarro reflected as a 2D Superman.
Further random worlds follow, with Batman and Gotham City getting the superstar treatment a 10 film franchise, 50 year legacy deserves. The penultimate room is the most interesting, deconstructing the heroes to their bare minimum and providing fodder for more extended contemplation. It is also one of the smallest of the rooms, leading quickly through to the Interactive Zone – aka an explosion of joy and concentration in the form of thousands of colourful bricks for visitor creation and play. Parents and children sat alongside one another for hours, equally enthralled with the search for the much needed next piece, coming up with endless new creations and combinations of buildings and forms.
It is this variety and interaction that is missing from the rest of the exhibition. Ultimately it is a one trick pony, broken up by a single screen offering an alternative experience, constrained by both the medium and the conceptual parameters of the major sponsors. What is there to see is amazingly well done, but the concept is simply stretched too thin. It fails to capture the childish sense of magic and wonder that is achieved by other such broad age-appeal exhibitions.
One piece, Hero Within, is described as ‘the soul of the exhibition’. A colourful, playful, physical and literal reminder of the child within all of us. And it sums up the experience of the show perfectly. Don’t try to dig too deep for meaning with this one.
Rating: 2 Stars out of 5
The Art Of The Brick: DC Comics
Nathan Sawaya
Powerhouse Museum
21 November 2015–1 May 2016
