Tetsuya Tanaka's Dioramas

The weekly trivia night started again last night after a break for Christmas.

Usually we have a meal at the club before the battle begins. Staring at a couple of pieces of broccoli on my plate, I mentioned that earlier in the morning I had seen photographs of some dioramas where the artist used broccoli pieces for trees. The artist, who is Japanese, has apparently made one diorama a day for 5 years. God knows where he gets the time. I said that I would post the photographs as the next Bytes post so here they are Jess, Thomas, Kerrie (Wayne and Carol are on a cruise).

A diorama, according to the dictionary definition, is a model representing a scene with three-dimensional figures, either in miniature or as a large-scale museum exhibit.

The Australian War Memorial has a large number of dioramas depicting battlefields from WW1 onwards:

A Gallipoli diorama.

In 2013 restoration and conservation works began on those dioramas. The above photograph will give an idea of scale: cleaning the Pozieres diorama.

A detail from one of the AWM dioramas showing the realistic portrayals.

The Australian Light Horse

Which brings me to the story of the Japanese artist and his fun dioramas.

The artist is named tetsuya Tanaka and you can see his dioramas day by day for 5 years at:

http://miniature-calendar.com/book/

Most of what is written on his website, Miniature Calendar, is in Japanese, but the following extract was in English:

Everyone must have had similar thoughts at least once. 

Broccoli and parsley might sometimes look like a forest, or the tree leaves floating on the surface of the water might sometimes look like little boats. Everyday occurrences seen from a pygmy’s perspective can bring us lots of fun thoughts. 

I wanted to take this way of thinking and express it through photographs, so I started to put together a “MINIATURE CALENDAR” These photographs primarily depict diorama-style figures surrounded by daily necessaries. 

Just like a standard daily calendar, the photos are updated daily on my website and SNS page, earning it the name of “MINIATURE CALENDAR”

It would be great if you could use it to add a little enjoyment to your everyday life.

I marvel at the mind that looks at a piece of broccoli and sees a forest, that gazes at an iron and imagines Star Wars. Here is a selection of photographs . . . 

Funnily enough, I haven’t been able to find a pic of the artist, or any information as to how he does it every day.