27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Last look at a new world as exhibit closes
Amani Kerekere-Shaw, 12, and his mum Savannah Kerekere, both of Dunedin, check out the Relics: A New World Rises exhibit on its final day at Tūhura Otago Museum yesterday. PHOTO: STEPHEN JAQUIERY
Lego-lovers got their last look at the mini inhabitants of a futuristic, post-human world in Dunedin at the weekend.
Since it opened in December last year almost 26,000 people visited Relics: A New World Rises at Tūhura Otago Museum.
The exhibition closed yesterday.
Front of house operations officer Christine Wierda said people who expected to see creations from standard Lego box-sets were often taken aback.
"[They] always walk out sort of stunned at the fact of how creative [the creators have] been and how different it is from anything else they've ever seen," she said.
"I think a lot of adults come out surprised that they've enjoyed it too."
People from across the South Island had visited the exhibit, including some who had visited Relics while it was on show in Auckland.
In humanity's remnants, little Lego civilisations had cropped-up — a grandfather clock turned into a time machine or a retro arcade converted into a futuristic spaceport.
A wall of retro televisions transformed into mini filming studios with some displaying stop-motion films of the Lego figures, was a personal favourite, Ms Wierda said.
The exhibition was created by Australian Lego masters television show winners Jackson Harvey and Alex Towler.
Everything in the exhibition was second-hand, including the bricks.
"Some of the props even have backstory of being in some friends of the creators' grandparents' cupboards," Ms Wierda said.
Savannah Kerekere and her son Amani Kerekere-Shaw, both of Dunedin, spent the last day of the school holidays checking out the exhibition yesterday.
While there was broad appeal for children and Lego fans, the humorous blurbs which accompanied each display were a "really cool touch" for the adults, she said.
Museum marketing manager Charlie Buchan said there had been almost 26,000 people through the exhibit since it opened — a great number for a paid exhibit, he said.
"It had been hugely popular and we have had visitors come especially for the exhibit from all over the South Island.
"It's been great to be able to offer a high-quality exhibition for our community."
