An Analysis of The Aesthetic of Shaun Tan
The above image, The Empire, is from the Go, said the Bird series of paintings by Shaun Tan.
3/22/21
This is an analysis of the aesthetic of Shaun Tan.
Shaun Tan was born and raised in Perth, Australia, and now works as an artist and writer in Melbourne, Australia. He has painted, sculpted, and produced short films, but he is most known for his books, often picture books, which showcase a unique aesthetic. My personal favorites are The Arrival (2007), and the collections; Lost and Found (2011), Tales from Outer Suburbia (2009), and Tales from The Inner City (2018). It is a unique aesthetic so unlike almost any other creators’ that I believe it should be analyzed and given a name in its own right.
I’m attempting to understand and classify this aesthetic so that I might be able to know what it is about his work that I fell in love with and dream of emulating, because it is a plain truth that I’ve always felt a connection to him and his art.
From Eric (2007).
Aesthetics often have rules. This is a nonexhaustive, admittedly incomplete list of the ones I’ve noticed his aesthetic repeatedly following:
1. You are not on our Earth. “It was great fun, yet I couldn’t help feeling that something wasn’t quite right.” This singular quote from The Lost Thing (2000) by Shaun Tan is the one that I feel truly encapsulates him. And indeed, that something isn’t quite right or quite normal is very clear. It’s very familiar and very foreign, eerily so. It doesn’t have to be alarming. On the smaller scale, it could simply mean that the little passageway that the neighborhood children swear leads somewhere more interesting suddenly, actually does. (But it doesn’t have to lead somewhere good or perfect.) Or that industry is that much more blatantly, surreally toxic and intrusive. On the larger scale, it could mean that a range of volcanoes have risen all around the city, preventing citizens from entering or exiting. Or that the oceans themselves have disappeared and given way to a massive, hauntingly empty plain. Or that you are, without warning or mention from the government or media, now on another planet itself.
The Amnesia Machine, from Tales of Outer Suburbia (2009).
2. You are surrounded by extremes. If it feels black and white, there is very little or no color at all. If it feels sepia, or rusty, there is very little or no brightness at all. If there is a storm, it covers the whole sky. If it feels monotonous, it goes on and on and on without shifting or changing. If it feels old, it is indescribably ancient. If it feels new, it is so new you aren’t sure what to do. If it feels geometric, there is very little or no natural roundness at all. The world is very clear cut, sometimes literally.
From The Red Tree (2000).
3. You are without connection. (At least, at first.) This does not necessarily mean that you are alone. It might be common that you are surrounded by others. But one way or another, you are without connection. It might be to yourself, to others, to violence, to an object or event, to the land, to the truth. It might present itself as loneliness, as loss, as a general feeling of unease or restlessness. One might say this motif is simply a part of the human condition and exists in all stories, but in Shaun Tan’s, it is not inherently negative. It just is. (Until, one day, perhaps, it isn’t.)
An unexpected flatmate, from The Arrival (2004-5).
4. You are faced with odd creatures in the place of average humans and cryptic symbolism in the place of plain truths. Nothing is as it appears to be, and everything is alive - sometimes literally alive - with a deeper meaning. That much is obvious.
Hello! from The Lost Thing (2000).
According to these rules, I can think of multiple works by artists other than Shaun Tan which are of the Shaun Tan aesthetic, including the interactive narratives Forgotten Anne (2018), Creaks (2020), Shinsekai: Into The Depths (2019), Journey (2012), Stela (2019), and Gris (2018), the movies Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), The Stressful Adventures of Boxhead and Roundhead (2014), and 9 (2009). And interestingly, the album Plastic Beach (2010) by the Gorillaz. There are bound to be more.
If you feel I have missed any other rules his aesthetic follows, comment below or reach out to me directly. This should be the subject of an ongoing discussion as all aesthetics are.
Good day.
