The Lego Man: what is his purpose, his name, and how has his life has made an impact?
The Giant Lego Man Had a Purpose
On the morning of October 25, 2011 in Siesta Key Beach, Florida Jeff Hindman was out walking when he found an 8 foot tall, 100lb fiberglass Lego man that had apparently washed up on the beach. On it's shirt were the words NO REAL THAN YOU ARE. On his back was the number 8 and the name Ego Leonard. LEGOLAND in Florida and the LEGO Group were contacted and denied any ownership of the figure.
As the story got out details began to emerge. It turns out that this wasn't the first sighting of the Lego man, he has appeared in a similar fashion in the Netherlands and England in 2007 and 2008, respectively, and is the work of a Dutch artist named, you guessed it, Ego Leonard, who assumed the identity of the Lego man when he was contacted about the indecent. Since the discovery, millions of people have read about the Lego Man and seen his picture, as the story quickly went viral and was prominently featured on Google, Yahoo, and YouTube.
The figure was clearly made to draw publicity, but the question was why? What was the artist's message? Or did he just put the figurine out there to make money?
He came bearing a message
On the artist's webpage is this message to explain the Lego man's voyage, translated:
"My name is Ego Leonard and according to you I come from the virtual world. A world that for me represents happiness, solidarity, all green and blossoming, with no rules or limitations.
Lately however, my world has been flooded with fortune-hunters and people drunk with power. And many new encounters in the virtual world have triggered my curiosity about your way of life."- Ego Leonard
In this we find clues, but no answers. The Lego man's shirt read NO REAL THAN YOU ARE. This is clearly what the artist wanted to say, and when you read it it seems to be missing a word between NO and REAL...and the most likely words are more and less. No more real than you are...of course not, he's plastic, though more can be read into that. No less real than you are.. assuming that YOU is referring to the general public, with this phrase one might think that the artist is calling the public plastic, or fake. Saying that the people of the modern world are no better than a bunch or Legos. Or maybe the artist has trouble with English. All we know is that he went through significant trouble to put the figurine there, and therefore he wants the message to be contemplated, if not just to make people think.
