Pantheon

The Pantheon of Rome was originally built in the first century BC and then rebuilt in 126 AD. Sitting at the heart of the Roman empire, it was a temple to all the gods. As Christianity came to dominate Italy, this pagan temple was rechristened as a Catholic church, the Santa Maria della Rotonda. Standing in front of the real thing is a breathtaking experience. It's huge and completely dominates the surroundings. Luap31's LEGO version, shown here, doesn't come in at quite the same scale, but is a really nice build.

Paradise lost

Dag's bricks came up with this cute little Eden scene.

Valley Of The Shadow Of Death

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. -Psalm 23:4 - here in LEGO by Bricko.

Inferno

Mihai Marius Mihu is in the middle of a great project. He is illustrating each of the nine circles of Hell, as delineated by Dante. First up is Limbo. In Dante's description, Limbo is the abode of unbaptized infants and virtuous pagans. They aren't receiving particular punishments, but since they did not know Christ they do not enter Heaven.

Kinkaku-ji

The Kinkaku-ji, or Temple of the Golden Pavilion, is a Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan. Alanboar built this great LEGO version. He also put it on Cuusoo, which is a site that LEGO uses to measure the public's interest in potential set ideas. I'd love to see LEGO create some of these amazing places of worship as sets. Before you say such a thing would never be done, rival building company Nanoblock has set of Kinkaku-ji along with other world cultural landmarks, so it's not like there is no precedent. Go to Cuusoo and support this great MOC as a potential set. Also, Alanboar has other images at the Cuusoo site.

Hellfire

Perhaps the most interesting and disturbing bit in any Disney movie is Hellfire from the Hunchback of Notre Dame (well, also Night on Bald Mountain from Fantasia), here in LEGO formby Jordan Schwartz.

Protect me, Maria
Don't let this siren cast her spell
Don't let her fire sear my flesh and bone
Destroy Esmeralda
And let her taste the fires of Hell
Or else let her be mine and mine alone



Hey, this is probably the only thing I'll ever be able to cross-post between GodBricks and DisneyBricks!

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.