The Book as Sculpture: Alexander Korzer-Robinson

[Brigitte Martin]

Through my work in the tradition of collage, I am pursuing the very personal obsession of creating narrative scenarios in small format. Using antiquarian books makes the work at the same time an exploration and a deconstruction of nostalgia.

(left: Gilles
cut encyclopaedia, 1930
24.5cm x 17cm x 7cm)

We create our own past from fragments of reality in a process that combines the willful aspects of remembering and forgetting with the coincidental and unconscious. On a general level, I aim to illustrate this process that forms our inner landscape.

(right:

The Boy's Own Annual
cut children's book, 1890
29cm x 23cm x 5cm)

By using pre-existing media as a starting point, certain boundaries are set by the material, which I aim to transform through my process. Thus, an encyclopedia can become a window into an alternate world, much like lived reality becomes its alternate in remembered experience. 

(left: Day of the Dead
cut encyclopaedia
25cm x 17cm x 7cm)

I make book sculptures / cut books by working through a book, page by page, cutting around some of the illustrations while removing others. The images seen in the finished work, are left standing in their original place. As a final step the book is sealed around the cut, and can no longer be opened.

(right: Birdcage
cut encyclopaedia
18cm x 26cm)

(left: Bliss VII
found paper, card
19cm x 19cm x 3.5cm)

I am an artist from Berlin now living in Bristol, UK. Drawing from a background in psychology, my art practice focuses on the notion of the “inner landscape”. Using generally discarded materials, I make objects as an invitation to the viewer to engage her/his own inner life in order to assign meaning to the artwork.

As we remember the books from our own past, certain fragments remain with us while others fade away over time – phrases and passages, mental images we created, the way the stories made us feel and the thoughts they inspired. In our memory we create a new narrative out of those fragments, sometimes moving far away from the original content. This is, in fact, the same way we remember our life – an ever changing narrative formed out of fragments. This mostly subconscious process of value judgements and coincidence is what interests me as an artist and as a psychologist. Through the artistic work, these books, having been stripped of their utilitarian value by the passage of time, regain new purpose. They are no longer tools to learn about the world, but rather a means to gain insight about oneself.

SOURCE, additional information and images: http://www.alexanderkorzerrobinson.co.uk/

 

[Leisa Rich]

Lovely use of color in this art form! Are you familiar with Brian Dettmer's work? 

[Tom Supensky]

Hello Alexander,

   What a "novel" way of making art!  We come to Bristol now and then as my wife, Pauline, was born and raised there.  I taught there for three years.  I also taught in Oldenburg for two years.  Maybe we can meet up one day.  All the best.  Tom.  www.tomsupensky.com