It’s A Small World
Have you ever heard of Tatsuya Tanaka and his most famous work, Miniature Calendar? Tatsuya Tanaka is an art director and a photographer of miniature models from Japan. He has more than a million fans on Instagram. He posts a miniature work every day, like making a calendar, and has released more than 2,500 works since 2011.
I went to The Pier-2 Art Center in Kaohsiung and saw Tatsuya Tanaka’s Miniature Life Exhibition. All of Mr. Tanaka’s works are models of things in real life like trees, buildings, and food in miniature.
Once I saw the advertisement for the Miniature Life Exhibition, it drew my attention immediately! The works in the exhibition were so creative and cute! Mr. Tanaka was good at putting supplies into different situations.
You can see the picture with a brush. Mr. Tanaka turned the hair of the brush into the straw, and a worker is cutting them. Besides, there’s a horse eating the straw.
There are some works with explanations.
Like the picture with some clips, the explanation said, ”Found stationery with no name, but after being identified, the forensic examination revealed that it was a clip.’’ Mr. Tanaka compares clips to humans. The falling clip is like a corpse lying on the ground, and other clips are like rubberneckers.
I believe everyone seeing this picture will smile knowingly. There’s a man sitting on a pencil sharpener, and he is taking a big one. The explanation of this picture says, ”Challenging the longest record.” The sawdust is the man’s poop.
Mr. Tanaka collects countless models of little men, and they are lifelike. He compares a palette to a spa, and the explanation is, ”A turbid hot spring. You had better get inside as the color is still clean.” It sounds like a pun that both people and pigments get the water dirty.
Food is one of the most important elements of Mr. Tanaka’s works. He turns meat and fried rice into waves, and the little people ride on the waves. The rice wave looks so frightening as if the little man will fall into the sea.
I also like the series of entertainment facilities. A drop tower is one of the most famous amusement rides in an amusement park. Mr. Tanaka uses bolts as the amusement ride and people line up for it. The other one is the swing ride. This one is so ingenious! I think almost everyone has a round clothes hanger in their house, so this work must let people have many resonances. The little humans in the picture are held by clothes pegs, and they look painful!
I have to say that this exhibition is so amazing, and I even became a fan of Mr. Tanaka! Today, Mr. Tanaka posts his work every day, and his creativity seems to be endless. Mr. Tanaka’s miniature works bring people lots of enjoyment, and I believe the enjoyment will last with his endless creativity.
