Larger Than Life LEGO Animals Pop Up at Iowa’s Reiman Gardens!

We can't get enough of <a href="http://inhabitat.com/tag/legos">LEGOs</a>, so we're delighted to learn about a whole exhibit of 27 life-size sculptures at <a href="http://www.reimangardens.iastate.edu/" target="_blank">Reiman Gardens</a> in Ames, Iowa. Built by LEGO® Certified Builder, <a href="http://seankenney.com/" target="_blank">Sean Kenney</a>, the <a href="http://www.reimangardens.iastate.edu/en/sculptures_built_with_lego_bricks/" target="_blank">Nature Connects</a> show features a full-size mother bison, made from 45,143 bricks along with hummingbirds, butterflies, fish, a fox, rabbit, flowers and much more. The sculptures are spread throughout the public gardens and will be on display through October.

Reiman Gardens is one of the largest public gardens in the state and serves as the entrance to Iowa State University and the city of Ames.

As part of their <em>2012 Some Assembly Required</em> theme, the gardens hired New York-based artist and LEGO® Certified Builder, <a href="http://seankenney.com/" target="_blank">Sean Kenney</a> to build a series of life-size lego sculptures.

The show is titled, “<a href="http://seankenney.com/portfolio/nature_connects/" target="_blank">Nature Connects</a>”, and the sculptures are inspired by gardens and nature.

The 27 sculptures make up 14 displays and were created from nearly 500,000 Lego bricks.

Kenney and his team built the exhibit in 8 months and made use of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butanone#As_a_welding_agent" target="_blank">MEK (methyl ethyl ketone)</a>, an organic “welding agent” also referred to as "polystyrene cement" to connect the Lego pieces together permanently.

Ranging in size from 6 inches to nearly 8 feet tall, the sculptures are representations of how interconnected nature is.

For instance, the water display features lily pads, a frog and a koi fish, which is meant to show how ecosystems rely on diversity to survive and thrive.

Lilypads, frog and koi fish.

The fox and the rabbit discuss how for there to be healthy and balanced populations, the rabbit provides food for the fox and the fox keeps rabbit populations at optimum levels to preserve their shared habitat.

Closeup of the fox.

The bumblebee represents the connection that plants and pollinators and how important this relationship is to encourage new growth.

And the gardener discusses how our activities have deep rooted and often permanent impacts on our planet.

Closeup of the finches at their bird feeder.