I guess the thing I’m always looking for, as most people are, is authentic expression. I’m also intrigued by “outsider art,” works by people who are not part of any self-conscious movement or establishment, untrained, non-commercial … which I would say is most art that gets made, and also most of the art that gets overlooked. I’m influenced by pre-Columbian sculpture from Central America, Inuit carvings, African sculpture, Australian Indigenous stories, British and American cartoonists, impressionist painters, Japanese printmaking and animation, you name it. But there must be 10,000 other influences, and not very culturally specific, as far as I can tell. Stasys Eidrigevicius, a Lithuanian artist known for haunted-looking figures in metaphorical landscapes, is another I remember seeing and being impressed by when a small exhibition came to Perth. I think it was the first video I ever saw as a kid, when VCRs became a thing in the suburbs of ’80s Western Australia, and it left an unsettling and lasting impression. I’m often drawn to Eastern European illustration, such as the work of Roland Topor in the very trippy Fantastic Planet (1973), where blue giants keep wild humans as pets. The mention of Alfred Kubin is interesting, as I only discovered his work quite recently, finding something tonally similar to my own, albeit much darker and far more disturbing. What are your inspirations and who are your influences? I see Alfred Kubin, and a whole slew of Eastern European fantasists from prior to WW2. You fit neatly into a few genres of fantasy art. To even befriend a strange animal as a household companion, and come to see their equally strange world as a new home, to make a life within it. So this image, and the greater story of The Arrival as it unfolded, was really about that central feeling of encountering something incomprehensible, but still wanting to reach out and connect with it on an emotional level. What does it mean? I wasn’t entirely sure, and just early European visitors encountering “weird” Australian animals such as a kangaroo or platypus, or something as inconceivable as a black swan. But over several drawings it became stranger, with elements of parrot, tadpole, shark and octopus, while still feeling like its own thing. Originally it was an iguana, a favorite go-to animal when I’m trying to think of something very different to a human, neither cute nor scary, just hard to relate to. That image was the starting point for a longer graphic novel, which occupied me for a number of years: a man in late 19th-century clothing holding a suitcase, pondering a strange animal that seems to have taken an affectionate interest in him. My first question has to do with one of my favorite drawings, it was the cover of your book The Arrival. Drawing upon 25 years as a picture book and comic creator, painter and filmmaker, Creature explores the central obsession of Tan’s vision, from casual doodles to oil paintings. This much-anticipated volume is an engaging collection of essays illuminating Tan’s methods, and includes advice for writers and artists. 1 release of his first anthology/monograph, Creature: Paintings, Drawings and Reflections ( Levine Querido). The next best thing? An interview, which I conducted prior to the Nov. I always wanted to work with him when I was art director of the Book Review, and regret never having the opportunity. I became aware of his genius for blending fantasy with wit while judging a New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book competition, where his now-classic The Arrivalwas unanimously selected for the shortlist. Shaun Tan is an acclaimed Australian narrative artist known for illustrated books that deal with social and historical subjects through surreal imagery.
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