One of the things I really love about the LEGO building community is how LEGO artists can undermine conventions and subvert expectations. We’ve long maintained the viewpoint here at The Brothers Brick that LEGO is indeed art. Art can be fun, art can be funny, art can be uncomfortable, and yes, art can definitely be political — Nobel Prize for Literature winner Toni Morrison says, “All good art is political! There is none that isn’t. And the ones that try hard not to be political are political by saying, ‘We love the status quo.'” So it’s always interesting to see LEGO artists take on unexpected, difficult, and even uncomfortable subjects. And there is nothing more discomfiting than seeing our favorite LEGO BrickHeadz style applied by Swedish LEGO artist O Wingård to two of the most terrible people in human history — General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin and Nazi Führer Adolf Hitler.
But discomfort should provoke thought, and thought should provoke discussion, and discussion can (but doesn’t always) result in progress. If LEGO is art and all good art is political, then good LEGO creations are (by the transitive property of equality) inherently political. If you’re a decent human being, these adorable BrickHeadz should make you deeply uncomfortable. What does that say about art? About the human condition?
I’m all for freedom of speech in art, language, etc. It’s essential for our lives, our soul.
Just let this artist know, that if he were to display these in say…Scotland. Well, we all know what happened to Count Dankula.
Toni Morrison is ignorant and completely out of touch with reality. Showing these creations goes way beyond “uncomfortable”, you should be thoroughly ashamed of yourselves for displaying this work. There were millions of people that were exterminated by these two people and displaying this shows your lack of any sense of common sense or moral composition. You should issue a full apology to all of those that you have offended for your personal lapse in ethical fortitude.
Randy – i don’t think you can call Morrison ignorant, even then it’s not your website they can post whatever they want and i personally really like the two Brickheadz, that doesn’t mean that i’m racist or communist or fascist it just means that i appreciate good art/ ingenious art
Randy, the only person ignorant here is you. You are one of those people who want anything uncomfortable whitewashed and hidden away. The world doesn’t work that way, and for you to insist a privately owned website needs to apologize to everyone for your hurt feelings says nothing but bad things about you personally. I only hope you don’t have children, because we really don’t need to spread the DNA of braying jackasses more than it is already. Grow up and realize the world doesn’t revolve around you bruised fee-fees.
Randy and legodad42:
You do understand that Wingård in no way supports Hitler or Stalin by putting together these?
ya’ll realize he made bricheadz of ALL the national leaders
Randy, I am more offended by you than by anything else regarding this post. How are you supposed to be any better than the two despots when you try to enforce censorship based on your own sensitivity towards certain topics and personal taboos. You disgust me!
I am not uncomfortable about Hitler nor Stalin, they are history now and I recognize them as such, but what makes me feel uncomfortable is the notion that their oppressive tendencies the blind self righteousness and hysteria lives on in scum like you. It is exactly taboo bound blind self righteousness that makes us march towards totalitarianism once again. Just look at the Jailing of Tommy Robinson, and the 3 speakers at Hyde Park Speaker’s Corner who were denied entry into the UK, as well as the arrest of Count Dankula, all due to “Thought Crimes”
All right, enough. We’ve got right-wing apologists coming out of the woodwork weeks later, with name-calling flying in both directions. So much for civil discourse on the confluence of LEGO, art, and the real world we all share.