Some artists find inspiration from the grand and vast, painting galaxies and taking photos of expansive landscapes. But Rogan Brown finds his inspiration through a microscope, focusing on the infinite mystery of nature’s smallest parts.
Brown’s latest piece, Outbreak, is a series of hand-cut paper sculptures in transparent domes, depicting neurons, pathogens, cells and microbes, a beautiful representation of the order our bodies contain. The pieces look somehow fragile, alien, and comforting, all at once. He calls it “exploring the microbiological sublime”.
Here’s a photograph of the entire piece:
Zooming in, the detail is remarkable:
Brown explains his process and inspiration on his portfolio website, which also features older series:
I am inspired in part by the tradition of scientific drawing and model making, and particularly the work of artist-scientists such as Ernst Haeckel. But although my approach involves careful observation and detailed “scientific” preparatory drawings these are always superseded by the work of the imagination; everything has to be refracted through the prism of the imagination, estranged and in some way transformed.
Check out a few more images from earlier work, some depicting split-apart pods, and spores, below. [This Is Colossal via Rogan Brown]
