The Red Tree
The red tree
A children book by shaun tan
The Red Tree is a story without any particular narrative; a series of distinct imaginary worlds as self-contained images which invite readers to draw their own meaning in the absence of any written explanation. As a concept, the book is inspired by the impulse of children and adults alike to describe feelings using metaphor - monsters, storms, sunshine, rainbows and so on. Moving beyond cliché, I sought painted images that might further explore the expressive possibilities of this kind of shared imagination, which could be at once strange and familiar. A nameless young girl appears in every picture, a stand-in for ourselves; she passes helplessly through many dark moments, yet ultimately finds something hopeful at the end of her journey.
First ideas
For the first ideas when separated into groups and picked a image from the book to base a 3D sculpture off.
We chose the cluttered over lapping building layout with ladders , words and strange faces placed around.
We gathered random objects from a shopping basket, old tiles, door hosue parts, old roses. paper , images and signs to paint and make into some sort of strange building.
Playing with shadows
After exploring some of the illustrations in the book we stayed in the same groups and chose another image to then use to create shadow puppets/ imagry.
We chose the swollowing fish that moves through the city hovering other the little girl.
This image then became an important part of our set desings and my part of the making in set building.
Showing the feeling of intrapment
Designing the set
Here is images of the basic model we all put together of the certain sections of the set.
There is 5 different sections that represent parts of the book by using the words and illustrations to connect them.
Me and Emma chose to do the room with the fish tunnel and shelfing for bottles area. This room is the first one after they enter the little girls bedroom.
After the bottle stage it then moves on to the city scapes and then to the theatre stage of magic tricks and then to the magical moments with puppets and finally back to the little girls room.
Construction of the set
The rocks
I decided that there needed to be rock beds along the side of our section to make the bottles room look more of a seas side. this also connected to one of the pictures in the book that shows the little girl siting inside a bottle stuck on a pile of rocks.
Not only did these rocks add to the aesthetics it helped create a more enclosed space for the children. At the end sand was placed around the area and over the rocks which made them look more realistic and connected to the rest of the room.
I used hard foam board as the base of the rocks , I then use chicken wire and tin foil to create the structure and main shapes. I then used expanding foam and tissue paper to create more rock like effect that then made it more easy for me to paint. I painted the rocks with a basic grey colour then added highlights for definition.
I added some bottles covered in lights to draw attention to the rocks as well as create a more magical seashsore feel.
I also used the expanding foam to create smaller rocks and pebbles on the shelfing unit which was used as objects for the cardboard houses to be lead against as well as the other small little dolls.
The dolls where made to be placed by and inside the bottles on the shelfing to highlight that other children are just like the girl in the book and find themselves trapped inside a bottle.
One of the doll was also made to look the same as the actor who plays the girl to help symbolises how the life size girl felt without using words.
The shelfs
The shelfs were made out of recycled wood. I made panels for the shelfs, legs for the sides, shorted wood for support and I also used hard foam for the backing of the unit.
Here shows the marking layout of the units within the space and how they would be moved/ at what angle.
I then painted the units in black and added wheels to allow the shelfs to be moved side by side to expose the nect room city door.
The Fish
Creating the fish was very challenging and fun. We made the fish out of metal and wood for the bases, pvc piping to create the structure, sheer and cotton material to create the fish skin, paper to build the fish lips and strips of fabric attached the lips.
For the inside we used plastic to add an inside stomach affect, hung up extra fabric to cover the pvc, hung up old children clothes to show how other children have been swallowed and attached a fan to make the plastic inside blow up and move. We also added strips of frabic to create an entrance and teeht like affect.
The front lip was moveable witch was done by attaching string to the pipe and operated by the sides of the fins.
Here are the markings we drawn on the floor to helps us work out the measurements of the whole fish and how we could act within it.
We also painted the floor under the fish's mouth to look like the sea to show that the fish is in the ocean.
