Lego project visits

Lucia Biddles-Brown, 8, and her brother Benjamin 4, hang out with mayor Lawrence Yule at the Lego table.

Lawrence Yule's engineering background stood him in good stead on Monday morning as he helped two youngsters try out the components of an upcoming Hastings City Art Gallery's art installation.

About 50,000 pieces of white Lego make up The Cubic Structural Evolution Project - an installation that relies on the viewing public to build it.

The building blocks arrived at Hastings City Art Gallery last week, and after the Monday try-out are being stored until the exhibition opening on June 4.

The work is the brainchild of Danish artist Olafur Eliasson. It has been installed across the world including in Tirana, Albania, Oslo, Norway, Copenhagen, Denmark, New York and Queensland. In New Zealand it has opened in Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin.

More than 8000 people were expected to take part in its 12 weeks in Hastings, gallery director Toni MacKinnon said.

Mr Yule said the interactive nature of the exhibition would draw a very broad audience to the Hastings District Council-funded gallery, creating a great opportunity to show first-timers around the rest of the facility.

Ms MacKinnon is ready and waiting for the crowds expected to take a look. "This really is an amazing opportunity. We're sure the public will embrace it - it is a very rare chance to be involved in what has proven to be a very popular installation across the world."