MORE LEGO

More Lego by Martin Gooding

“More Lego”, I think I scoffed a little first time I read it, obviously kids want more lego, thanks capitalism, but the more I thought about it, maybe those little technicolour blocks of danish joy represented something bigger, a human necessity to build, to create, to evolve and transform, to break and fix at will, to be gods of our own domain. Maybe, these kids were on to something.

My names Martin, you’ve probably met me before, I’m the shouty one with the beard, I’m also the lead on Youth Engagement here at B Arts, I’m constantly looking for new ways of exploring the exciting barrage of ideas that young people lob at me every week. I’m also the lead on our current “Climate Theatre Camp” international youth exchange project and was assistant director on December’s “The Lost Post Office”, it’s around here things start to converge.

I was tasked with making an installation for the “Blank Space”, you know that big wall on the side of our building we’ve been sticking tasty art on?, to explore young people views on Climate Change, so here we go, let’s do some exploring…

So at first I only knew what I didn’t want to make, nothing blamey, accusatory, condescending or contradictory, something that wouldn’t start the year off with a bucket of lukewarm dread, lukewarm dread is bad. So that had ruled out a few things but I still didn’t really know where I wanted it to go, infographics were too dry, facts too confrontational, I was half-tempted to stand outside for a month in some strange performance piece but January isn’t really the time of year for it, I needed some means of collecting content that I could turn into art. This is were The Lost Post Office turns up bearing it’s wintery face, and where better, to speak to people young and old about the future of the planet they live on, than the middle of a leaky fictional post office somewhere near the centre the earth.

So with a little help from my post office pals, we decided to ask our audience some questions, what would you like to protect for the future? What would you like to see more of? What can our world look like? They then posted those ideas into, what else?, a postbox in an underground cave surrounded by glowing mushrooms, after the post was cleared and the flooding sorted out I emptied the post box, and started to read the suggestions. They split evenly into three piles. Pile one contained utopian ideas, tips for climate crisis, calls to save animals, this was to become the bread and butter of the piece. Pile two contained suggestions of a different type, reviews of the show and kind words, these were more a pleasant tea break. Pile Three contained “misc’, children’s drawings, simple messages and some of the more left field suggestions, “More Lego” something about that one clung to me.

Lego is a portmanteau of the Danish phrase, leg godt, meaning “play well”, That was a message I could get behind, these young people were asking for quality of experience, the tools to build their futures, that seemed to make all the other pieces fall in to place, the children’s drawings and suggestions quickly became an ensemble cast of Lego, Fish, Wizards and, of course, The Polar Bear at the heart of it all. As I pieced them together a unified, converging disc, I began to imagine them making their joyous demands of a better world…

MORE LEGO, AND THE TOOLS TO BUILD,

MORE WIZARDS, MORE POLAR BEARS, THEY’RE MAGICAL,

LESS LITTER, IT’S NOT MAGICAL, MORE LAUGHING, MORE KINDNESS, THOSE ARE GIVENS,

MORE PLANTS, PLANTS ARE COOL,

MORE HUDDLING CLOSE TO THOSE WE LOVE, THAT ONE’S WARM,

LESS PLASTIC WASTE, MAKE OUR PLANET PARAMOUNT,

MORE LOVE FOR THE OCEANS AND THE SEAS,

AND THE GUYS THAT LIVE THERE IN THEIR LITTLE FISH HOUSES,

MORE PRESSURE ON BIG POLLUTERS, THEY ARE MAKING THIS MESS, LET’S MAKE SURE THEY SORT IT

MORE LETTERS, TO YOUR MATES, TO MPS

AND TO GIANT WHITE BEARS THAT LIVE AT THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH,

LET’S MAKE SURE WE’RE HEARD

AND MORE STORIES, JUST LIKE THIS ONE…

Martin Gooding is a writer, performer, artist and producer based in Stoke-on-Trent who is currently working for B arts on our youth arts programmes including; New Futures (a Youth Music funded project), International Climate Camp and Fegg Hayes Futures.