Brick by brick, whitecap by whitecap, this ten-minute time-lapse video captures Japan-based LEGO artist Jumpei Mitsui assembling a giant LEGO wave sculpture over the course of 400 hours.
The original design is a LEGO brick reproduction of Katsushika Hokusai‘s iconic woodblock print Under the Wave off Kanagawa from 1830–31. The brick artist observed waves on YouTube for hours, and read academic papers on waves to better understand their forms and energy.
Mitsui’s three-dimensional model was made with around 50,000 bricks in 2020, and was most recently installed at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.
The founder of Mitsui Brick Studio, Jumpei Mitsui is the youngest LEGO Certified Professional of 22 professionals around the globe, and the only LEGO certified pro in Japan.
Watch the MFA Boston team installed the one-of-a-kind LEGO wave sculpture for the museum’s 2023 exhibition Hokusai: Inspiration and Influence:
Plus, enjoy a few photos from the artist’s visit:
Find Jumpei Matsui on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
Watch more LEGO and these handpicked videos next:
• Making Waves: What Happens When We Zoom in on Art?
• The Infinite Now, a series of oceanscape cinemagraphs
• Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night, but make it LEGO
• LEGO Artist Ekow Nimako’s All Black LEGO Sculptures
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