Lego movie

Here is my  sitting, glazed out target series. To make up for my lack of success with the photo snappers.

This series depicts the dedicated audience to one of the displays in the installation. 

The display.

A short loop (one chapter) of a film that has been running since the opening week - there is no alternative working film with text to display instead, and a giant (and therefore permanent) monitor to display something on. And so this is it - a movie made by Lego, based on their Bionicle series. A series of toys, computer games, and movies which a group of Maori (yep, this is the one and only NZ connection in the boxes), represented by Maui Solomon tried to get Lego to stop producing. Their issue was with some of the terms, names, and stories used in Bionicles, that were either the same as or very similar to Maori language and mythology. They argued the series constituted inappropriate usage of spiritual and religious terms. Well anyway, and unfortunately perhaps, I don't think it's most dedicated audience is there for the dispute - they're here to escape from their parents who've been dragging them around art exhibitions all day, they're here to watch cartoons. And they love it, just look at their faces!

The audience.

They start them small.

The separation of the child from the TV often causes a real temper tantrum and sometimes I feel bad having a part in such a tantrum-causing piece. The funniest ones are the ones who keep returning throughout the day - establishing where their parents are and then running back here for more movie. It doesn't seem to matter at all that they are watching the same sequence over and over again, and that it's only playing in English, when I would say the vast majority of them are not English speakers. They all sit there with the same dumb bug-eyed stare of the TV viewer. Adults do it too, but they are less cute.

21 September 2011