Angus transforms his speed cubing talents into portrait of Elvis

We always knew Angus Hannelly was destined for greatness when we met him 12 years ago. At the tender age of 14 he made headlines in Parkes when he became only the eighth Australian to ever solve the Rubik’s Cube puzzle in less than 10 seconds at his first National Championships in 2013, solving it in 9.86 seconds. Now Angus is back and he's taken his talents to a whole new level. The now 25-year-old who was born and raised in Parkes and lives in Sydney, was invited to create a portrait of Elvis out of cubes which is on display during this year's Parkes Elvis Festival in the Coventry Room at the Parkes Shire Library and Cultural Centre. What makes this mural all the more mind-blowing is the past week was the first time he's ever attempted something like this. He created three other murals for practice - one of Borat, Buzz Lightyear and his girlfriend Georgie Crombie - before trying his hand at the Elvis portrait. "I've been solving Rubik’s Cubes since I was a kid," Angus said. "I absolutely love doing it, it's something my dad has always been good at and I remember thinking 'I wanna beat you, I wanna beat my dad'. "I started entering competitions at 13-14 and it would take me eight to nine seconds to solve a Rubik’s Cube. "Now I can do it in four to five seconds," he laughed. "But now I just do art with it. I've turned the speed cubing passion into an artistic outlet." There are 950 cubes in this portrait, and all together with the frame weigh 130 kilograms. It took Angus eight hours to make one mosaic and when he was creating the four murals, in between building each one he had to solve 1000 cubes. Angus is a noise and vibration consultant, mainly at construction sites, by day and took a week off work to do the murals. "That's all I did for seven days, eight hours a day," he said. "And it took two days to make the frame." He said his Buzz Lightyear mural was the hardest to make. Angus arrived in Parkes and spent all day Monday, from 10am to 6pm, putting together the Elvis portrait at his parents' home - Carmel and Peter Hannelly - before transporting it in sections to the Coventry Room. "It was quite a task," he laughed. "It's actually bigger than I was expecting, when you have it down on paper and it coming to life is very different. "I thought 1000 cubes would be cool but 1000 cubes is much bigger than I thought." Adding to the unique experience this journey has become for Angus, when he ordered the 1000 cubes from China, each one arrived in its own box individually wrapped with a leaflet. "I had to unwrap each one, it took me 12 hours to unpack them in my little Sydney home and I filled three yellow (recycling) bins with the packaging," he said. He'll first see how his Elvis portrait is received at the festival, but Angus hopes there'll be many more murals to come with the possibility of one day selling them. If you'd like to talk to Angus about his cubes he can be contacted on 0447 594 387 or email angus986@icloud.com. We'll be sharing timelapse videos of Angus building his murals on the Parkes Champion Post Facebook page for those interested in watching them.