Tuesday, June 13, 2023

Shaun Tan's Cicada / A meditation on belonging and bullying – in pictures

A scene from Cicada by Shaun Tan Photograph: Artwork © Shaun Tan/Lothian Children’s Book

Shaun Tan's Cicada: a meditation on belonging and bullying – in pictures

In his latest picture book, acclaimed Australian illustrator, writer and film-maker Shaun Tan explores the ponderous themes of migrant workers and workplace bullying through the voice of a hardworking insect who has toiled away, unappreciated and without promotion, alongside humans in a grey office block for 17 years.

The author of award-winning books including The Rabbits, The Red Tree and The Arrival, as well as Oscar-winning short film The Lost Thing, reveals behind the scenes of the horrifying and humorous story, showing us the sketches and moveable sculptures that ultimately allowed Cicada to fly.

Cicada is the story of a scorned insect who works in a sterile office with hostile coworkers. With shadowy illustrations and sparse narration, it examines workplace bullying in a story that is ‘for anyone who has ever felt unappreciated, overlooked or overworked’.

As a teenager in Perth, Shaun Tan began drawing images for science fiction and horror stories in small-press magazines. He has gone on to create award-winning illustrated books that are at once dystopian and uplifting, surreal and sobering, deftly confronting difficult social, political and historical themes.

‘Belonging’ is a recurring theme in Tan’s work. In Cicada, the protagonist is a data entry clerk who works tirelessly for 17 years alongside humans who never accept him. ‘A lot of my stories are about animals invading human spaces,’ Tan told the Australian. ‘I think it serves as a sort of distorted mirror for ourselves, making us step outside of the narcissistic self-absorption of our species.’

Tan says the character of the cicada reminds him of his own father, Bing, who moved to Australia from Malaysia to study when he was in his early 20s. He was hardworking but had poor English, the author says. ‘[He] was an architect who worked in a few different offices throughout his life. I often got the impression that his skills were underappreciated in some of these places.’

In creating the character of the cicada, Tan says he felt compelled to show ‘the overlooked aspects of ordinary life, almost to try and redress some imbalance in the way that we look at things. To counteract some of those views of the world that might be fairly destructive, even though they may be mainstream and accepted’.

This illustration shows a character sketch of the eponymous cicada. Tan says he wanted to ‘[pay] attention to some people who might be a little more quiet or overlooked. The sort of people around us every day who might be ignored. Sometimes they might be bullied or just otherwise dismissed’.

Tan made models of the characters and scenes, which he subsequently painted. This is an early sculpture of the office-bound protagonist.

The cicada morphs into his insect form in this clay sculpture created by the artist.

A model (left) and painting (right) of the central character living in the ‘office wallspace’. Tan describes the creation process thus: ‘I made a sculpture of the central cicada character with moveable limbs – basically an action figure – and built simple miniature office spaces out of paper and board. I could then arrange and light these elements on a table top, photograph them, and use the resulting images as “sketches” for both structuring the story and as reference for final paintings. In some cases, the finished illustrations are nearly identical to the photographs.’

The storyboarding for Cicada. Tan says the book was initially much longer, but he pared it back to generate ‘mystery’, creating what he says is the ‘simplest’ book he’s ever done.

These illustrations show Tan’s initial sketches for the cover of Cicada. ‘I like to think that each reader comes away [from reading the book] with their own interpretation, that the story and character reminds them of different aspects of themselves and other people they might know,’ he says. ‘I think that’s important with any work of art – whether it’s a story or a painting or play or a film – that you should come away with some questions.’

THE GUARDIAN