The Arrival, Shaun Tan

The Arrival by Shaun Tan is a genius graphic novel about displacement. Without any written words, it powerfully tells the endless tale of human flows. The story is set in a “futuristic past” visually rendered by mixing a variety of photographic material ranging from more mainstream iconic historical documentary photography to specific archival documents from the immigration centre in New York.

Some concept art for “The 1st of the Month’

Below are some early stage sketches of the concept art for my final project.

Directly below are the two main characters: the kid and his grandma. As the story stretches in time there are two versions of the kid.

Above is a moment in the local post office where all the grown up kids go to collect their grandmothers’ pensions. Meanwhile grandmas’ bodies are being preserved in fridges at the kids’ homes.