Yin and Yang

Often times in the west we think of the Yin and Yang symbol as a battle between good and evil, but that's not how it really works in Taoism and other aspects of Chinese religion and philosophy. The idea is more that there are opposite qualities that work together in a balanced system. These could be light and darkness, or, as in this Yin/Yang mosaic by Sharon Prue, hot and cold. This beautiful MOC won 'Best Fire' at a recent gathering of LEGO builders.

Happy New Year

Cai Shen is a god of prosperity in Chinese folk tradition, later venerated in Taoism and some forms of Buddhism. Today figures of Cai Shen (here by rack911) are often included in Chinese New Year decorations as tokens of good luck for wealth in the year to come.

Silent night, holy night

Blake Baer made this nativity as a gift for his mother.

Sola LEGO

Legohaulic made this great Bible.

Chapelle d'En

Left4bricks built the Chapelle d'En found in Languedoc, France. I guess the original dates from the 13th century.

Bible stories

AlfredD has a gallery of the 10 most beautiful Bible stories.

Here we see parable of the good Samaritan:



Here is Joseph first being sold into slavery by his brothers, and then reconciling with them.



This is Queen Esther.



Here is creation week. I thought day 1 was particularly clever.



Jonah being spit up on the beach.



Well, that's it. I hope he posts the other five stories (there's a tower in his Brickshelf gallery that might be Babel, I suppose). I'm not sure how I'd limit myself if I set out to illustrate ten Bible stories. Of course there is nothing here of the life of Jesus, so the nativity, crucifixion and resurrection are pretty obvious calls. I suppose I'd be sure to include at least one thing from the Exodus, but would that be the burning bush, the plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, the giving of the law, or what? You kind of need the Fall if you want to tell a cohesive narrative. Other people like Noah, Abraham, David should all make appearances. I'd probably have left out a couple of the ones above if I had to fit an artificial limit of ten.

LDS Temples

Andrew Johnson has built a series of LDS Temples, including the Washington DC, Nauvoo, and Denver temples.

Holocaust LEGO

In 1996 Polish artist Zbigniew Libera designed seven fake LEGO sets depicting scenes of Nazi Concentration Camps.



These were designed as sets, with faux box art. There was a bit of a controversy in that he put the LEGO logo on the box and said they were sponsored by LEGO. LEGO initially donated him the bricks (which, c'mon, would have cost maybe a couple hundred at the most on Bricklink), but later objected when they saw the product and unsuccessfully sued to get the sets removed. To me this seems a bit disingenuous of them - he was, as far as I can tell, he was already known at this time for taking toys and making them into bizarre or outrageous works (e.g. a baby doll that was partially dissected, etc).


Anyway, Libera made three copies of this, which were sold to collectors. They've been shown at various museums in the interim, always evoking lots of discussion, both pro and anti (see, for instance, this commentary. One of the three installments of seven sets was recently purchased by the Warsaw Museum of Modern art from a private collector for 55000 Euros (~US$71000). By the way, this does raise for me the question of what makes a MOC into Art. As a LEGO creation this is pretty low level stuff - just look around Brickshelf and Flickr and you'll see much better building. I've certainly seen AFOLs build MOCs based on similarly shocking or moving subject matter, including things like waterboarding, the torture of the Falun Gong, and even other Holocaust depictions. Why aren't we in the AFOL community selling our work for tens of thousands of dollars? Oh well, a discussion for another forum. Someone (and I promise this time, it's not me, I just don't have the expertise) really should start an ArtBricks blog.



While the Nazi regime impacted all of Europe, of course their particular evil was focused on Jews, with six million killed. Jewish life today is still impacted by the Holocaust, and Yom HaShoah, the day of remembrance, is treated as a holy day in Jewish communities around the world, with prayers said in remembrance of those killed. By the way, I'd highly recommend Michael Goldberg's Why Should Jews Survive?: Looking Past the Holocaust Toward a Jewish Future, in which he argues that remembrance of the Holocaust has become too great a definer of Jewish culture today, and he argues for a return to a deeper purpose, dating back to the covenant at Sinai.

This LEGO creation is one that I've gone back and forth on with regards to this blog. Every so often someone comes across this and posts it to some LEGO forum, where it ignites a debate. Some find this work completely appalling, and say it should be shunned. Personally I think it really works as art in that it starts a conversation. Rather than trivializing the subject, I think showing this in the innocence of a toy emphasizes the horror of the Holocaust. You could also take away messages about how we market violence and war to young boys, or how corporations become complicit in governmental evil. So while I've hesitated to blog this work before, I'm glad that it came up in the news again to remind me to post it.

Happy New Year

Chinese New Year isn't actually here for a few weeks yet, but 2012 is the year of the dragon (here by ArzLan). The Chinese zodiac is one of those cultural practices that doesn't have any real religious significance now, as far as I can tell, but the origins go way back to days where folk tales and folk religion were tied together. Various origin tales I found have the gods or God choosing the animals of the zodiac, and one origin story specifically says Buddha made this choice.

Merry Christmas

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. - Luke 2:6,7
Brick Monster wishes us all a merry Christmas.

Magi

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea in the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem. - Matthew 2:1
Steve Bishop's Magi came in 2nd in the New Testament category of the LEGO Biblical Scenes Contest.

Samson

Lego27bricks made this great Chained to the pillars

Menorah

While the giant public display menorahs are fun (for instance, see this one in Oregon), my favorite might be this one by Eli built last year at Hanukkah.

Happy Hanukkah

I'd like to wish all of my Jewish readers a very Happy Hanukkah. The Festival of Lights begins tonight at sundown. Each night a candle of the menorah is lit to commemorate the miracle of the oil that burned for eight days at the rededication of the Second Temple. Each year, and this year is no exception, there are stories of groups that build giant LEGO menorahs, like this one from three years ago, so you might want to check for an event near you.

Abraham and Isaac

There are only a couple more days to get in your entry for the LEGO Biblical Scenes Contest. IMO, the odds-on favorite to win the Old Testament category is Blakes Baericks' Abraham and Isaac.

Christopher Hitchens 1949-2011

This week Christopher Hitchens lost his fight with cancer, and the world seems a poorer place. An essayist and commentator on a great number of political and social issues, in recent years he has become known as one of the "Four Horsemen of the New Athiests", vigorously debating all comers against the belief in God. While I disagree with his conclusions, and would love to have debated him, I will miss his mastery of language, his biting wit, and his gracious manner of dealing with his opponents, even while viciously attacking their ideas. As a little private memorial I listened yesterday to an mp3 of his 2008 debate with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. I highly recommend listening or watching some of his countless debates, many of which can be found on YouTube or through iTunes. I was hoping to find some LEGO tie in, but the only thing I could find was a 2006 piece republished in his book Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens in which he was urging his readers to join him in a demonstration outside the Danish Embassy in Washington, DC (this during the whole Danish Muhammad cartoons controversy). He wrote: "Danish flags are good, or posters reading "Stand By Denmark" and any variation of this theme ("Buy Carlsberg/Havarti/Lego").

Mithraeum

-[mikey]- built this Mithraeum, which is an underground temple for adherents of the mystery religion Mithraism. During the first through fourth centuries, many in the Roman Empire turned to this faith, drawing on the Persian deity Mithras. Little is known about the specific doctrines of Mithraism, as not writings survive, but the archaeological evidence gives some clues. Mithras was born out of a rock, or maybe a cave. He performed a miraculous act bringing water from a rock. He significantly killed a bull, as this scene is featured prominently in Mithraea. He met the sun god and feasted with him on the bull, and a common feast among the initiates of the faith seems to have been an important part of their ritualistic practice. Some have argued that Mithraism was an early rival to Christianity, but others say that Mithraism was not so widespread as to potentially become the dominant religion. Also, some claim that Christianity was simply a copy of Mithraism, and the story of Christ was patterned after the story of Mithras, but a little examination shows there is little to support this.

Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama, here in LEGO form by TheBrickMan, is a high leader in the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. His followers believe that he is the physical manifestation of the Bodhisattva of Compassion, and that he has been reincarnated fourteen times in order to continue leading his people to enlightenment. The current Dalai Lama has become an international leader, representing the Tibetan people in exile and speaking out in support of a number of issues.

Saint Peter

"...on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." - Matthew 16:18,19
Zgrredek gives us an interpretation of Saint Peter.

Bible too racy for Sam's Club

Apparently Sam's Club rejected the Brick Testament. The company responded to inquiries saying "Sam's Club received numerous concerns from our members and parents about the mature content in what is perceived as a children's book. Accordingly, Sam's Club made a business decision to discontinue sales." It appears that the company got a few e-mails (or maybe just one?) complaining that Brendan is an atheist, and that on his website (NOT in the book) there were offensive depictions of sexual activity. Wow! Gee whiz! They've uncovered some deep dark secret that was, um, never a secret, and explicitly stated way back in 2001 (shoot, I missed celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the BT a month ago). There is a long discussion on Facebook where you can interact with the person that may be behind the initial complaints to Sam's Club.

BTW, while Brendan may have lost out here financially, since there will be fewer sales of his book (and to help remedy that, see below), IMO he won rhetorically. He has oft stated that one of his goals is to make people look at the Bible and judge it, not just go on the redacted version they got through Sunday School when they were little. Also IMO, I think both Brendan and small minded people like (IMO) the complainers here have a complete misunderstanding of the Bible. They all think that the Bible is meant to be a guide book for right living, full of upstanding moral examples. To Brendan the Bible fails at this, and so he rejects it. The complainers simply seek to ignore the failings of Biblical figures, and so stick to their Sunday School version. I'm sitting in my son's room right now as I type this (because I'm waiting for the baby to wake up and she's in the crib, okay, that was unneeded information), and there on the shelf is a Children's Bible with about twenty or so nice stories. I think that's what these complainers want the Bible to be. But it's not. The Bible is about God's quest to save a stupid, stubborn sinner like me (and you and you and you). God doesn't work through moral paragons, but through a deceiver like Jacob and an adulterer like David as the ancestors of Jesus, a bullheaded Peter as one of his closest friends and leader of his church, heck, the whole nation of Israel that was constantly turning away from Him to chase after other false gods. He did this so that none could boast that we were saved through our own righteousness, or that of our forebears. Any righteousness we might have is just dirty rags, as Paul writes. Instead, he saves us by pure grace, despite all of that. So, IMO, both Brendan and Tabitha Grace fall into the same pitfall. The Bible is not meant to be a perfect little book full of nice sayings, stories, and rules to live by. It is the story of God's encounter with humanity, a humanity that lusts, hates, covets, lies, kills, and ultimately denies that God. And yet He died on Calvary to save us.

Okay, end of sermon. I've shared these ideas before in discussions with Brendan on the old, now largely defunct, Lugnet, and in some of my reviews here. I disagree with him philosophically, and yet I love what he has built out of LEGO. If you're looking to buy the Brick Testament, perhaps as a Christmas gift for that AFOL in your life, you can go to Amazon or Barnes & Noble.