This hand- and laser-cut paper piece highlights the aesthetic, formal parallels between cellular structures as revealed by electron micrographs, as well as patterns and shapes found on coral reefs.
Length 50 cm
Width 50 cm
Observing one of Rogan Brown’s paper sculptures is like peering through a microscope. His extraordinarily detailed pieces wouldn’t be out of place in a lab. The British artisan, based now in France, is inspired by nature. “From bacteria to trees to neurons to spiral galaxies to subatomic particles. I constantly surf images of nature in all its myriad complexity, always looking for correlations and patterns that I then use in my own work.” The results are delicate and surreal sculptures made from layer upon layer of either hand or laser cut paper.
Read the full interviewPhoto: © Rogan Brown
This hand- and laser-cut paper piece highlights the aesthetic, formal parallels between cellular structures as revealed by electron micrographs, as well as patterns and shapes found on coral reefs.
Length 50 cm
Width 50 cm
Photo: © Rogan Brown
The colours and shapes of this hand- and laser-cut paper piece, resembling a coral reef, are used here to construct an imagined representation of a bacterial colony. As a biodiverse, symbiotic habitat existing in harmony, the coral reef is a perfect metaphor for the human microbiome, which is the vast colony of bacterial organisms that live in and on our bodies.
Diameter 96 cm
Photo: © Rogan Brown
Made from hand- and laser-cut paper, Magic Circle is essentially an organic mandala inviting the viewer to meditate on the profound beauty we find in nature, where diverse elements coexist in harmony.
Diameter 104 cm
Photo: © Rogan Brown
Rogan’s goal is to take a simple, banal material – wood, clay, metal or in this case paper – and through an act of imagination transform it into something unique and extraordinary. He has done so by cutting layers of paper out by hand and with a laser cutter.
Diameter 92 cm
Photo: © Rogan Brown
The spiral is one of nature's most iconic structures and can be seen in different contexts at different levels of scale: seashells, hurricanes, galaxies. Here Rogan has imbued this humble material, paper, with powerful kinetic energy by mimicking this form. To do so, he cuts layered paper out by hand as well as with a laser cutter.
Length 60 cm
Width 50 cm