In his Magic Circle series of cut paper sculptures, artist Rogan Brown depicts the microscopic structures and bacteria present in the human body, imagined as a coral reef
Detail from Rogan’s Magic Circle series. Image courtesy of Rogan Brown
Rogan, your work is incredibly intricate - how do you go about creating these sculptures?
Some pieces are entirely hand cut whereas others are laser cut then hand mounted, which is the case for the sculptures in the Magic Circle series. Obviously these are time and labour intensive pieces to make; they grow slowly and organically, starting as drawings, then single layer cuts and finally three-dimensional sculptural motifs made up of many layers.
What is it about the 'micro world' that fascinates you?
I think we all have a memory from the biology lab at school when we looked through a microscope for the first time and were blown away by the amazing detail and intricacy of a fly's wing or a fragment of leaf. I suppose that sense of awe at the sheer scale of the natural world has never left me, and it's that moment of amazement I try to recreate in my work. The human brain is not very good at processing scale, and so the vastness of the universe revealed to us through science tends to overwhelm us, therefore we block it out. My work simply reminds people of what they're unconsciously forgetting.
Where do you turn for inspiration?
Art and science and the relationship between the two are real inspiration behind my work. I spend a great deal of time looking at a wide variety of images from different sources: electron micrographs of microbes and cell structures, satellite images of the surface of the Earth, anatomical drawings of the human body, telescope images of the heavens, etc. In short, images of nature in all its myriad forms at scales and in different contexts.
What would you love to create if money and materials were no object?
I'd love to scale up the sculptural elements from Magic Circle, cut them from sheets of metal instead of paper, then mount them on the exterior of buildings to make them look as though they were growing and alive.
Any other projects in the pipeline?
I'm currently working on some pieces inspired by both coral reefs and the human body in an attempt to combine and integrate these seemingly different elements. The aim is to create a powerful visual icon that makes us understand that the reefs are not outside us, they are part of us, and if we let them die as we are doing, then part of us will die too. The simple message is that ecological, environmental destruction is ultimately self destruction.
What’s on your bedside table?
Ernst Haeckel's wonderful book Art Forms in Nature. His images of oceanic microorganisms published over a century ago still have the power to astonish. If I look at it before I go to sleep I dream surreal, organic forms!
