Bridging art and science with paper

Every one of his pieces starts with meticulous drawings
Rogan is fascinated by natural forms
His hero is the Nobel laureate physicist Richard Feynman

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 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.

Interview

How do you bridge science and art?: Although my approach involves careful observation and detailed 'scientific' preparatory drawings, these are always superseded by the work of the imagination; everything has to be refracted through the prism of the imagination, estranged and in some way transformed.
Why have you chosen paper?: Because it fitted perfectly the subject matter I was describing, that is, natural organic forms. Paper perfectly captures that mixture of delicacy and durability that for me characterises the natural world.
When did you become interested in nature?: Around 2009. My aesthetic started to emerge because I lived for ten years in a wild and remote area of southern France (the Cévennes mountains) in the middle of a forest; everything came from that place and that experience.
How long does it take to finish a sculpture?: Up to five months. Each one of them is hugely time-consuming and labour-intensive. The finished artefact is really only the ghostly fossilised vestige of this slow, long process of realisation.

Rogan Brown is an expert artisan: he began his career in 2012