Burger - Lego, 2020

BrickBoardBuilder  

A one-word title for a subject the whole world knows. From Claes Oldenburg to Andy Warhol, the hamburger is one of the totems of pop art, and Brick Board Builder offers his own version, in the only material he allows himself. The framing is that of a poster: a close-up on a black background, cut off by the left-hand edge, so tight that you are no longer looking at a sandwich but at a craving.

It reads layer by layer. At the very top, the bun, domed and golden, built in beige, orangey yellow and bright orange, with flashes of white and pink that make it shine. A line of shadow, then the filling: bold reds and carmines, the browns of grilled meat, touches of pink and cream. Lower down, the lettuce spills out in lime green and yellow, before the bottom bun closes it all off in shades of caramel and sand. No layer is a single colour, and that is what makes the image so mouth-watering.

Black takes up nearly half of the panel. It is not a void but a built monochrome, where raking light picks out a hull, wheels, the edges of stacked pieces. Its job is simple: to show nothing, so that everything else bursts out.

Up close, the recipe reveals itself. The lettuce contains real LEGO® leaves, and small yellow stars are sprinkled over the bun like sesame seeds. A Batman logo has slipped in on the left-hand edge, and a yellow tile with a laughing face sits on the side of the bun. The black hides a number 50, a tile covered in chalk-drawn formulas and another decorated with pastries. And near the signature, a small round bread-coloured piece, set there like a miniature burger.

The hamburger is the symbol of fast and identical everywhere. This one is the exact opposite. Brick Board Builder put it together slowly, by hand, without a predefined blueprint, using reclaimed LEGO® bricks that arrived loose from all over France, some thanks to the solidarity-based non-profit Rejoué, and were then cleaned and sorted one by one. A recipe with no spec sheet, impossible to remake identically.

Neither a print nor a reproduction: a one-of-a-kind piece, numbered, bearing the artist’s plaque and delivered with its certificate of authenticity.