Tag Archives: Surrealism

The blue screen of life

In the bowels of a dreary-looking office building, life shines in the intriguing “Blue Screen” by Loïc Gilbert. Let’s let the builder tell the story behind this LEGO enigma:

The building had stood abandoned since 1992. …fluorescent lights flickered to life, joined by the faint whirring of old desktop fans. Then came the soft, steady drip of water. He glanced at the dim blue glow coming from an old monitor, but something felt off. The desktop wallpaper wasn’t static—it was gently rippling.

Blue Screen

The mystery of the computer screen aside, my favorite aspect of the build is the way every mundane detail is brought to life with ordinary LEGO elements: the post-it note the mouse, the scissors, the ranks of tiles archived away in crates. I’m pretty sure I had that exact computer sitting on my desk back in 2002. Mine never came to life with a mysterious blue screen, though.

Sail towards the kings and queens of the butterfly collectors

What do you get if you cross the hobbies of LEGO, butterfly collecting, and impossible bottles? It might well look something like this creation by Gayle Spiller. It is inspired by a surrealist painting, although I’m reminded of the Jam, which is paraphrased in the title of this post. It’s a superb execution with some unique solutions for the patterns on the butterfly wings. There are croissants, eyes, sausages, pies, and even guitars in there! The ship itself is beautifully sculpted as well, with the exaggerated curves matching the surrealist tone of the piece.

The Winged Ship

Elope with me, or in this case erow with me

Leave it to to Ralf Langer to draw inspirations from pirates and turn it into a surreal work of art using LEGO as the medium. We see two figures in a boat rowing across the sea. In the middle of the sea there is a square frame almost like a window in a wall.

The surreal "Sea"cret hideout

We can see two of the four sides of the frame and they show us two completely different worlds. One of them is a Tudor style building that we’ve come to know and love when it comes to Ralf Langer creations. The other one is a stone temple hidden in the midst of an enchanted forest. The two figures in the rowing boat represent inhabitants from these worlds. This is highly interpreted but my guess is they are lovers from two different worlds who are eloping. I might have over romanticised this a bit though.

The metamorphosis of a bird

In this surrealism-inspired LEGO sculpture, Woomy World achieves a dynamic and organic look through the use of clever part usages and a bright color palette. According to the builder, Technic supports were used as the skeleton for the sculpture. We see some of those beams at the base, but throughout the rest of the build, they are virtually invisible beneath the twisting tree trunk and the bird’s plumage/foliage. Instead, I’m drawn to the gradient of the leaf parts from teal to dark azure, as well as the dramatic flourish of the wings made with flex tubes, a technique used by fellow builder Joss Woodyard. And contributing to the seamless flow of the bird’s transformation, the twisting tree trunk has all of these natural grooves and textures from parts like technic connectors and a Belville saddle.

Avian Blossom

If you love this build, check out some other mythical builds by Woomy World, including castle titans and a reimagining of Ninjago dragons.

Surrealism and LEGO are a match made in elephants

The mustachioed surrealist artist Salvador Dali inspired this stunningly spindly pachydermal presentation from Dutch builder Jaap Bijl. This was an entry for Innovalug’s ongoing Style It Up! LEGO building contest. This category restricted creations to maintaining 4 studs’ worth of contact with the display surface. Dali’s “Les Elephants” features just the sort of delicately balanced build many of us actively try to avoid. Thanks to the plethora of newer curved slope pieces over the last few years the Daliphant’s shape is well represented, and I’d almost wager it took longer to get the thing to safely stand in place than it did to build.

Need more LEGO Dali in your life? We’ve featured a few creations in the past, including Lin Kei’s own “Les Elephants” take which earned him a spot in the LEGO House’s Masterpiece Gallery.

The elephants - Style it up! cat.3 Inspirational build

Your dreams will be haunted by this surreal phantom bride

This ethereal bride is brought to us by Xavier Viloria and will be sure to haunt your dreams. He was inspired by a trio of artists who work in such diverse mediums such as anime illustration and doll making.

Phantom Bride

Looking like something that popped out of your favorite manga, this Phantom Bride hits all the right notes. The face is wonderfully expressive and the hair is fantastic, using tentacle and tail pieces to create a flow that seems natural. Things start to get really surreal around the chest and shoulders area with window insets and a headless mini-doll surrounded by blackbirds. The chest resolves into an elegant melted look using bars and dishes giving the illusion that the whole figure is floating in the air. The hands emerging from the water below are elegant and well crafted, a true sign of the builder’s talents. Many artists spend years perfecting the drawing and sculpting of hands and these are spot on. The lavender background uses dimensional plants and flowers that are thoughtful and add to the dreamlike quality of the whole piece. Pale and ghostly, this bride will haunt you long after you’ve woken up.

Big on character, small on parts

It’s amazing how a builder like R197 can take a simple LEGO brick and find a character in it. The  way he uses a boombox element for eyes, and bent knees formed from technic braces, can conjure up the poise and gait of an arthritic robot.

Discovery Mech Type-G

See more adorably tiny robots.

Autumn in the Park

My favorite quote from H.P. Lovecraft inspired this surrealist work. The quote goes like this: “the blind cosmos grinds aimlessly on from nothing to something and from something back to nothing again, neither heeding nor knowing the wishes or existence of the minds that flicker for a second now and then in the darkness.”

Autumn in the Park

You can buy this creation from Creations for Charity, and there’s only 5 days left before the store closes for this year!