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November 13, 2007
Look What Popped Up at RIT
One of the advantages of living in an area rife with institutions of higher learning is that there’s almost always something interesting going on somewhere. The Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) has, in particular, become my favorite place to go learn about books and art for free. A couple years ago, they had a free kick-ass exhibit of original picture book art, and this past year, I went there to see Scott McCloud and his entire family speak in an auditorium like it was no big deal, which—DUH—it was a very big deal. Yesterday, I went to see RIT’s newest exhibit, this time one about pop-up books.
Libraries don’t collect pop-up books for obvious reasons, so I don’t spend much time looking at them (aside from The Wide-Mouthed Frog by Keith Faulkner and Jonathan Lambert, which I have memorized). The RIT exhibit focuses on technique. They used big pieces of foam and poster board to create a series of what could best be described as huge pop-up cards that demonstrate various structures artists use when creating pop-ups. You can open and shut the cards to see how the inner structure folds up and then emerges. Next to each of these cards, they have mounted a couple illustrations from published works that utilize the structure being demonstrated. At the end, they show some sketch work and dummies from a few artists who work in pop-up, and then they have a great big table with lots and lots of pop-up books to examine. Their ephemeral nature makes it easy to dismiss pop-up books, but the exhibit showcased a fair number of extraordinary books, the kind that made me sorry we can’t keep pop-ups at the library. The Pop-Up Book of Phobias by Gary Greenberg and Matthew Reinhart uses pop-up in an inventive way and is perfect for teens who are fascinated by all those big ol’ names for various disorders. The Night Before Christmas illustrated by Robert Sabuda is lovely (as is most of his work), and One Red Dot by David A. Carter is intricate and playful at the same time. Several of each artist’s books made me laugh with surprise as I turned pages, which is what a pop-up should do, right?
Being an Institute of Technology, the exhibit was big on geometry and technical terminology I didn’t understand. It was intimidating and inspiring at the same time. Seeing what makes the pop-ups work makes me want to give it a whirl myself, but knowing my own dislike of higher-level math, I know I’d only get so far in the pop-up world. Still, it seems like a nice activity to do with a group at some point or maybe a nice activity for me to try at home with a card to send to a friend. Overall, another A+ for RIT. Go, Tigers!
Posted by adrienne at November 13, 2007 07:25 PM
Comments
I really enjoy good pop-up books. When I became the children's librarian of a particular branch in New York, the librarian leaving my spot told me that she didn't bring the pop-up books out for the children to look at. I thought, "Well, what is the point of having them then?" And I did bring out the pop-up books for the children. They promptly disappeared as soon as I turned my back. (Did I mention that we had a 40% "no return" rate at our branch?) When I told the previous librarian what had happened, she sighed and said that's why she never brought them out. Too bad. Really, we should have never bought them in the first place.
Wah!
Posted by: Alkelda at November 13, 2007 10:02 PM