A wordless tale of belonging: Shaun Tan’s The Arrival

Looking over much of my previous work as an illustrator and writer, such as The Rabbits (about colonisation), The Lost Thing (about a creature lost in a strange city) or The Red Tree (a girl wandering through shifting dreamscapes), I realise that I have a recurring interest in notions of ‘belonging’, particularly the finding or losing of it. (Shaun Tan, in an article written for Viewpoint magazine)

Shaun Tan’s The Arrival is a beautiful, immersive example of the internationally renowned illustrator’s narratives of belonging. There are no words in this book – just gorgeously rendered photorealist drawings that tell a migrant’s story in an unprecedented way.

The first images of the book usher you into a family’s life: a clock on a mantelpiece, a child’s drawing, a cracked teapot, a portrait of three people smiling. A father, a mother and a young daughter hold hands as they travel through streets heavy with the shadows of monsters; the man steps onto a train, headed for a new country. The Arrival looks like a photo album, but it is also a narrative, exploring a unique story with so much care that it can be universally understood.

Without language, we all find ourselves in a strange land. In The Arrival, there is little that is familiar to anchor us. Tan’s traveller arrives in a city that is half Ellis Island, half Oz: the writing that appears on signs and paperwork is elaborate and undecipherable; people are accompanied by alien creatures perching in baskets or on shoulders. It is unlike any place we have ever dreamed of, yet this man must now try to make it his home.

Slowly, he puzzles out the basics. How can he find work? He is fired from one job, and frightened from another, because he cannot read. What does food look like here? His crude sketch of a bread loaf elicits instead a curly gourd and a crustacean-like plant, but also an invitation to dinner from a man who, it turns out, also came from a dangerous homeland.

Tan’s illustrations resonate with empathy, rendering the many tragic stories here as keenly as he does the joyful ones. In The Arrival, his signature ability to make the strange tender has found another perfect story to tell.

Melbourne Writers Festival is delighted to present Shaun Tan’s The Arrival as a keynote event. Tan’s inventive graphic stories have already migrated from page to screen, with the Oscar-winning film The Lost Thing. Now, The Arrival has been brought to life in music by Sydney composer and musician Ben Walsh. An amazing live ‘sonic-scape’, performed by the multi-instrumental Orkestra of the Underground, accompanies projections of Tan’s exquisite illustrations. Tan will introduce this performance via video.

Shaun Tan’s The Arrival is at 7:30pm on 26 August at the Melbourne Recital Centre.

Tan also appears in conversation with Mike Shuttleworth on 3 September.

Melbourne Writers Festival fundraising event – Coraline

Be careful what you wish for…

Be among the first in Melbourne to see Coraline – a fairy-tale nightmare steeped in classic storytelling, craftsmanship and moviemaking magic.

Join us for a very special Melbourne Writers Festival fundraising event, which will be –

• Introduced by Shaun Tan (award-winning creator of The Arrival)
• Screened at Cinema Nova, 380 Lygon St, Carlton on Tuesday 21 July 2009 at 6.30pm sharp
• Raising money for the MWF Schools’ Program

Coraline is created by cult author Neil Gaiman, directed by famed stop-motion animation expert Henry Selick, and voiced by the talents of Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French.

In Coraline, a young girl walks through a secret door in her new home and discovers an alternate version of her life – a better version. But when this wondrously off-kilter, fantastical adventure turns dangerous and her “Other” parents try to keep her forever Coraline must count on her resourcefulness, determination and bravery to get back home.

Tickets are $20 ( $3.50 per transaction) and available from
http://www.mwf.com.au/2009/content/mwf_2009_home.asp?name=Coraline or 9999 1199

Official release date 6 August 2009

A book to love – The Red Tree

There should be  a miniature version of Shaun Tan‘s The Red Tree so that I could keep it in my pocket day-to-day and finally take it all the way to Germany. In Germany I would waylaid random people to glory in the quiet beauty of the book, the sadness and confusion and hope. I would point and smile until they thought I was completely mad. Then I would hold the book tight to my chest, walk a little way, and start again with someone new. I’d also go to museums, libraries and the studio that filmed The Neverending Story, but we have to bring the best bits of home with us. 

We’re close to program release but, pst, Shaun Tan is coming.

I’m wearing stripy socks today, as I do most days. That’s not really festival related, but I find it pleasing nevertheless.

Louise
Festival Administrator