RELICS: A New World Rises
Jackson Harvey, Alex Towler
19 September 2026 – 31 January 2027
Location | Canberra Museum and Gallery, 176 London Circuit, City ACT 2601
Opening Hours | Monday – Friday 11am – 5pm | Saturday – Sunday 10am – 4pm
Entry | Bookings required
Access | Wheelchair accessible, accessible bathroom
RELICS: A New World Rises transforms discarded and obsolete objects into intricate miniature civilisations built from LEGO® bricks. Set in a future where humanity has abandoned Earth, the exhibition imagines what might emerge from the things we leave behind. A Volkswagen Beetle becomes the site of an energy revolution. A grandfather clock is repurposed as a time machine. A refrigerator becomes a cryogenic wellness resort.
RELICS: A New World Rises challenges the culture of waste and the assumption that an object’s value ends when its original function does. Through craft, design, storytelling and speculative world-building, creators Jackson Harvey and Alex Towler give forgotten materials new purpose and invite audiences to look critically at consumption, obsolescence and our environmental legacy. LEGO® is a trademark of the LEGO Group, which does not sponsor, authorise or endorse this exhibition.
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Jackson Harvey and Alex Towler are the Perth duo behind RELICS: A New World Rises. Longtime friends who shared a childhood love of LEGO® bricks, they won season two of Channel 9’s LEGO® Masters in 2020 before turning their creative partnership into a touring exhibition that has broken attendance records across Australia and New Zealand.
Jackson Harvey is a multidisciplinary artist based in Fremantle, Western Australia. His practice spans mural work, painting, aerosol art, design and large-scale public art projects. Drawing on studies in architecture and painting, a decade-long career in tattooing and contemporary community art, Jackson brings a strong visual language to RELICS through colour, form, character and world-building.
Alex Towler is a Perth-based creative whose work brings together art, science, engineering and storytelling. A former environmental engineer, Alex worked with natural waterways and urban stormwater systems before developing RELICS with Jackson. His background gives the exhibition much of its inventive logic, technical problem-solving and interest in sustainability, adaptation and imagined futures.
Presented by Canberra Museum and Gallery
Images | RELICS: A New World Rises | Images courtesy of Canberra Museum and Gallery + Auckland Museum