The Warriors of Childhood

Masks of elemental power from a wonderful culture get adapted by a toy maker without giving credit.

I loosely claim myself as an AFOL (Adult Fan of Lego), but circa 2003 for a Master’s of Art History Thesis, I discovered the Bionicle theme. My paper outlined and charted Lego’s appropriation of key Mauri and other oceanic mythos elements, how they got in trouble, and the settlement with the Mauri People. This series uses the masks of the 6 main characters of the theme in a dramatic way. Much darker than the actual theme, like a toy with a haunted nature. Also incorporated is binary phrasing on each that when translated denotes a specific order to the series.

The masks are slightly dimensional as they are composed of crumpled Sumi paper. This was then drawn on top of with chalk and charcoal as well as slightly painted with colored drawing inks. The masks sit atop an oil wash with an iridescent stripe of acrylic paint as well as a clean stripe of Sumi paper.

View More: Appropriation, Binary, Culture, Ink, Lego, Masks, Mauri, Oil, Pattern, Sumi