Rogan Brown, a French-based British artist, creates captivating works of art using a surprisingly simple medium: paper. But don’t be fooled by the material’s commonality. Brown’s paper-cut sculptures are intricate and awe-inspiring, resembling the delicate forms of coral reefs and the microscopic world of bacteria.
Brown’s artistic vision is driven by his fascination with the natural world, particularly the way unseen realms inspire scientific exploration and even science fiction. His paper creations capture the complex beauty of these hidden wonders, translating their intricate details onto a two-dimensional canvas. By using paper cutting, Brown not only celebrates the elegance of nature but also highlights the accessibility of art. Paper cutting is a technique that requires minimal tools and materials, making it an art form that can be enjoyed by anyone.
My work comes into being in the space where science fact and science fiction meet and merge. Inspired by the narratives of scientific discovery and innovation that increasingly dominate contemporary culture my work is an attempt by a non-scientist, an outsider, to visualize, comprehend and assimilate these new ideas and new ways of seeing the world, whether it involves our changing perception of bacteria or the paradigm shifts in our comprehension of the physical world that emerge from quantum physics. My choice of paper cutting as a vehicle for this exploration of our changing perception of nature is based on its accessibility and simplicity as a medium. The transformation of a banal, quotidian material into something visually extraordinary parallels and echoes the radical changes in our vision of the familiar world that science engenders.
Rogan Brown
More info: Website, Instagram (h/t: Contemporary Collective).