As children, many of us had or saw at least one pop-up book. The narratives, colors, and especially the movement within these books were all enthralling. Our young minds wondering, “ How do they make the stories pop off the page?” For most of us, as we grew older pop-up books were left behind with other children’s literature with the occasional pop-up book targeted to adults. But there are creative artists who explore the potential of pop-up books to do more than entertain kids, and perhaps no one explores the rich possibilities more thrillingly than Colette Fu. Fu is a photographer who uses pop-up books to tell multi-layered stories with her photos. What makes her pop-up books unique are the cultural and universal themes she explores through the medium, matched to the grand scale and complexity of her constructions. 

Colette Fu, a first generation Chinese American, did not find her calling as an artist until she was an adult. After graduating from college she was able to visit Yunnan Province in China, where her mother was born. The visit turned into three years of teaching English, and while there Fu took up photography. She captured the beauty and complexity of the places she explored while documenting the many ethnic minorities in China. When she returned to the states she was accepted into a well-respected MFA photography program, where she strengthened her photographic skills and began to explore her Chinese heritage. Fu was matter-of-fact about the challenges of a being a professional artist and investigated ways to build a career based on photography.  She would not find her inspiration until she happened upon her first pop-up books, including Robert Sabuda’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: A Commemorative Pop-Up. This adaptation of a children’s classic inspired her to create her own pop-ups as a way to present her photo-journalistic research of her Chinese heritage. 

The daughter of an engineer, Fu taught herself how to make pop-up books by deconstructing other pop-up books. In interviews she states how she found the process of assembling the books comparatively easy; the challenge was how to tell meaningful stories with the medium. Her earlier works focused on documenting the different minority groups in China. Her later pop-up books explored the experience of Chinese in America and the contemporary world. 

The artist turned her photographs from flat surfaces to images that appeared as if they were three-dimensional, sculptural works. The scale of these “books” ranges from something that could sit on a shelf, to table-top creations, to virtually life-sized scenes. In her piece, Yi Costume Festival, Fu manages to create the feel of a crowded festival bursting in movement as the book is opened. She does this by layering the people, flowers, and structures, using perspective to create believable depth and making the viewer feel as if they are part of the event. She even adds little details such as fabric and yarn to the piece, almost like hidden treasures for the viewer.

Fu’s most recent work, A Day in the Terraced Rice Fields, is one example of her larger works:  it’s taller than a human and expands like an accordion-folded book across a room. As the piece is opened, each panel has a photographic scene with a pop-up screen separating the image from the viewer. On the viewer’s side of the screen are photo images of tourists and on the opposite side are the Red Yao women, a minority group in China known for their long hair. The viewer, of course, is also positioned on the voyeur’s side of the screen. Inspired by the children’s book A Day in the Zoo, Fu questions the spectacle of the women exposing their hair for tourist dollars when their culture dictates that only their future husbands should be the first to see their hair uncovered. By making the figures life-sized, Fu makes the viewer part of the piece. Adding the screen between the tourists and Red Yao women, she also makes us aware of how we put the women on display.  With Fu’s later pieces we see her shift from documenting the many cultures and practices of Chinese groups to bringing awareness to universal issues and challenges.

Colette Fu continues to explore how she can push the boundaries of pop-up books. Experimenting with scale and content, Fu has elevated the techniques of pop-up imagery to address themes that concern adults. She puts a playful, creative twist to her works that makes them enthralling to the viewer, beckoning them into her world.

Questions

  1. Research more about Colette Fu and her works. Why was it important for the artist’s works to focus on her Chinese heritage? Explain how her experiences may have influenced her choice.

  2. Choose a pop-up book by Colette Fu. Compare and contrast: how would the artwork change if presented as a traditional photograph compared to being a pop-up book?

  3. Choose a pop-up book by Colette Fu and discuss it in terms of form. What visual elements do you see that enhance it as a pop-up book rather than a two-dimensional piece? Explain how the artist uses the visual elements in the work.

One way we categorize art is through its medium. What medium would Colette Fu’s works be classified as? Choose one of the artist’s works to explain what characteristics it shares with the medium you have identified.