Shaun Tan exhibition

Blogging about the artists I have recently heard talk about their work has reminded me that I went with a friend to see the Shaun Tan exhibition about the making of his book, The Lost Thing, into an animation.
I really enjoyed it.

I had heard Shaun talk at a book launch a while ago;  he is a wonderful speaker.
There were television screens throughout the exhibition, showing Shaun and other members of the animation team explaining the process.  When you see the detail, the discussions that must have happened, you realise that nine years in the making was quite a reasonable time to have for it to be made.
I loved seeing examples of how the book was translated into animation, the animation software being used, the redrawing, the images of texture that had to be made, discussions about the sound track, the choice of narrator - so much detail! The explanations were clear and interesting.

When I was teaching in a primary school, we did a couple of units of work in which we made small animations. The amount of work was phenomenal and that has given me an appreciation of how much work there must be in professional animations. The animations we made were with 5 - 7 year old children, so the standard wasn't spectacular.  But it was great fun.

In the exhibition, there were original artworks, videos, sculptures, and the actual movie to see. After viewing the exhibition and all the work that had gone into making the movie, I was distracted from the story by seeing what I had been learning about in action. But now I want to see it again, just to enjoy it.  It is well worth the visit - and it is free!!
On the way to the station, I walked in a part of the city I don't usually go through and came across a sculpture that reminded me a great deal of Shaun Tan's drawings.  (Link here) I didn't take my camera with me as I hadn't expected to be allowed to take photos, so don't have any images.