Reality Is Not A Game…

The traumatic past is juxtaposed with the charm of children’s toys in these macro photos by Miklos Voros

Alternative Title: Artist creates photos that juxtapose traumatic and bloody past events with charming LEGO pieces.

When we think of LEGO we always consider them as building blocks for great designs, from the miniature to the life-sized, recreating real-world objects or becoming the building blocks of working machines. These works are just as much feats of engineering as they are artistic endeavors. However, we rarely see an artist focus on the juxtaposition of the inherent charm of the toys and their subject matter. A good example is the original LEGO movie that managed to imbue Michael Bay-esque action movie clichés with the friendly appeal of the little bricks.

This time, artist Miklos Voros used LEGO figures to create a series of macro-photographs, each inspired by a real-life tragic past event. Each photo is a dual-portrait, featuring two LEGO figures, the main actors of the stories. You see a broken princess and the unstoppable paparazzo. Or the tormented reporter and the fanatical executioner. You see the exhausted child laborer and the parasitic foreman. Each figure in each photo has been assembled of LEGO parts from different LEGO sets to give them a familiar, but unique look.

The images at first seem almost cute, they are LEGO figures after all. However, as they stand rigidly side-by-side, the tension between them becomes palpable as the often-violent stories that inspired them become apparent.

“The images of the series are layered macro photographs. The concept of the exhibition is based on counterpoints. It uses toys to reference serious stories, circumventing circumstances that could alienate the viewer. The violence that is portrayed in media makes human drama seem common and trivial, but a new approach might reestablish an inquisitive and empathetic state of mind – Voros revealed about the exhibition.

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