Latest news with #AlexTowler
Sydney Morning Herald
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
From secondhand shops to a sweet peach negroni, this Lego Masters star has Perth sorted
In this series, WAtoday reaches out to the Perth community to discover three things people love most about our coastal capital. Today we feature Alex Towler, who began his career as an environmental engineer, working mostly with natural waterways and urban stormwater, even while channelling his creative energy into performing with multiple punk bands at Perth music venues. After featuring on Nine's Lego Masters with long-time friend Jackson Harvey, the duo developed unique sculptural displays that combine Lego with human artefacts. The concept grew into exhibition RELICS: A New World Rises which has been touring Australia and New Zealand since 2023. Towler is now co-author of new Fremantle Press book A New World Rises: Tales of a Lego Future, alongside Harvey and Cristy Burne. In this book, he and Harvey have used second-hand bricks to build worlds for the story, inside discarded jetskis, pianos, ATMs and much more. I love Perth's music scene. It's amazing that such an isolated city pumps out such incredible bands – like when you leave a jar of salsa at the back of the fridge and weird and wonderful mould grows there. It's festering, but in a cool way – this incredible creative energy that has birthed Tame Impala, back in the day there was Gyroscope, Sly Withers, Spacey Jane and Stella Donnelly. Since we started RELICS I've been going to see bands a lot less, and the music scene has struggled post-COVID but Perth remains a great place for live music – and I very much intend to get back out there when I get the time. My standout albums are Sound Shattering Sound, by Gyroscope, Lonerism from Tame impala and Gardens from Sly Withers – I used to see those guys every weekend. I love Perth's secondhand and antique shops. Because the RELICS exhibition is set in the future, humans are gone from Planet Earth and the mini-figures inhabit the objects humans have left behind. We have to find a lot of secondhand things and there's a great strip of stores in Guildford near the Guildford Hotel that have become a standard destination for finding set dressing and artefacts. One of our displays is a bookshelf and the concept was each shelf had different Lego builds that match the theme of the books on the shelf, so there was nautical one, a medical one – it was a very fun challenge to find the books that matched the genres we wanted to build around, and justify how a title might fit a genre. I love Perth's small bars, particularly Bar Love. Our workshop is in West Perth and friends of mine Murray Walsh and Pippa Canavan recently opened this small cocktail bar in Northbridge and we love going there to debrief after a tough day in the workshop. It's just the two of us trying to build a whole exhibition, there's huge creative work going on determining how plinths will go together and so on – the creative process goes way beyond the Lego. We walk 900 metres to Bar Love, it's that kind of cool independent business Perth really fosters, it's got a great handpainted sign on the door, the bartenders have cocktail-making awards, it's just got a really cool vibe. Pip makes an unbelievable peach negroni.
The Age
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
From secondhand shops to a sweet peach negroni, this Lego Masters star has Perth sorted
In this series, WAtoday reaches out to the Perth community to discover three things people love most about our coastal capital. Today we feature Alex Towler, who began his career as an environmental engineer, working mostly with natural waterways and urban stormwater, even while channelling his creative energy into performing with multiple punk bands at Perth music venues. After featuring on Nine's Lego Masters with long-time friend Jackson Harvey, the duo developed unique sculptural displays that combine Lego with human artefacts. The concept grew into exhibition RELICS: A New World Rises which has been touring Australia and New Zealand since 2023. Towler is now co-author of new Fremantle Press book A New World Rises: Tales of a Lego Future, alongside Harvey and Cristy Burne. In this book, he and Harvey have used second-hand bricks to build worlds for the story, inside discarded jetskis, pianos, ATMs and much more. I love Perth's music scene. It's amazing that such an isolated city pumps out such incredible bands – like when you leave a jar of salsa at the back of the fridge and weird and wonderful mould grows there. It's festering, but in a cool way – this incredible creative energy that has birthed Tame Impala, back in the day there was Gyroscope, Sly Withers, Spacey Jane and Stella Donnelly. Since we started RELICS I've been going to see bands a lot less, and the music scene has struggled post-COVID but Perth remains a great place for live music – and I very much intend to get back out there when I get the time. My standout albums are Sound Shattering Sound, by Gyroscope, Lonerism from Tame impala and Gardens from Sly Withers – I used to see those guys every weekend. I love Perth's secondhand and antique shops. Because the RELICS exhibition is set in the future, humans are gone from Planet Earth and the mini-figures inhabit the objects humans have left behind. We have to find a lot of secondhand things and there's a great strip of stores in Guildford near the Guildford Hotel that have become a standard destination for finding set dressing and artefacts. One of our displays is a bookshelf and the concept was each shelf had different Lego builds that match the theme of the books on the shelf, so there was nautical one, a medical one – it was a very fun challenge to find the books that matched the genres we wanted to build around, and justify how a title might fit a genre. I love Perth's small bars, particularly Bar Love. Our workshop is in West Perth and friends of mine Murray Walsh and Pippa Canavan recently opened this small cocktail bar in Northbridge and we love going there to debrief after a tough day in the workshop. It's just the two of us trying to build a whole exhibition, there's huge creative work going on determining how plinths will go together and so on – the creative process goes way beyond the Lego. We walk 900 metres to Bar Love, it's that kind of cool independent business Perth really fosters, it's got a great handpainted sign on the door, the bartenders have cocktail-making awards, it's just got a really cool vibe. Pip makes an unbelievable peach negroni.
ABC News
08-08-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
RELICS: A New World Rises Exhibition Giveaway
RELICS: A New World Rises invites you into a world where vintage objects become thriving LEGO® civilisations. A fridge turns into a futuristic spa, a typewriter into a media hub, and a Beetle into an energy powerhouse. This immersive exhibition blends nostalgia with imagination and invites you to discover the future hidden in the past. Tune in to Evenings on ABC Radio Sydney on from Monday 11 August to find out how you can win a prize pack to see the exhibition. Prize details Family pass to the RELICS: A New World Rises Exhibition Lunch at the Australian Museums restaurant, Bistro Gadi Copy of the book: A New World Rises: Tales of a LEGO Future - by the creators of the exhibition Jackson Harvey and Alex Towler Visit the Australian Museum's website to find out more. Competition terms and conditions apply.
Sydney Morning Herald
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Australian Museum exhibition imagines a world where humans are replaced by Lego mini-figures
Once upon a child's playground, Lego was those annoying plastic bricks that would endlessly entertain preschoolers. Today, it is a recognised artistic medium, fascinating for adults and children alike, seeding a TV show and a new Australian Museum exhibition. Lego builders Alex Towler and Jackson Harvey, 2020 Lego Master champions who are bringing their Lego Relics exhibition to the Australian Museum. Credit: Steven Siewert Relics, A New World Rises – opening in August – imagines a future world where humans have pushed the environment one step too far and it has been repopulated by some 2000 mini-figures. Best friends Alex Towler and Jackson Harvey, winners of the first Lego Masters television series, have built 15 miniature civilisations within forgotten and reclaimed objects.
Sydney Morning Herald
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney ‘blocks-buster' showing a world where humans are replaced by Lego
Once upon a child's playground, Lego was those annoying plastic bricks that would endlessly entertain preschoolers. Today, it is a recognised artistic medium, fascinating for adults and children alike, seeding a TV show and a new Australian Museum exhibition. Relics, A New World Rises – opening in August – imagines a future world where humans have pushed the environment one step too far and it has been repopulated by some 2000 mini-figures. Best friends Alex Towler and Jackson Harvey, winners of the first Lego Masters television series, have built 15 miniature civilisations within forgotten and reclaimed objects. A version of Manhattan's 88th Street has been installed inside a hollowed-out piano, and a 1950s-inspired Studz Diner comes to life inside a 75-year-old jukebox. 'Lego has changed so much since we grew up with it. If you remember those classic red, blue, yellow bricks, now there's so many colours and parts,' Harvey says. 'It's just a really fascinating creative medium that you can use for just about anything.' The Australian Museum's chief executive and director Kim McKay announced Relics as its winter 'blocks-buster' on Tuesday, a follow-up to Machu Picchu and the Golden Empires of Peru. Towler and Harvey conceived of the exhibition in 2020. It took them two years to build in their workshop in Perth and they have since toured their Lego realms to the South Australia and Melbourne museums and New Zealand, adding as they go.
