Artist Research: Alexander Korzer-Robinson

Alexander Korzer-Robinson was born in 1975. ‘For quirky cut out artist Alexander Korzer-Robinson a picture really is worth a thousand words’. Sentences and paragraphs are of little interest to the 42-year-old who instead cuts around different images from 150-year-old Victorian books and carefully pieces them together to create a brand new 3D art form. The Bristol-based artist, originally from Leipzig in Germany, has created vivid, detailed collages that feature everything from old soldiers standing to attention to giant pink flamingos.

Through his work in the tradition of collage he pursues a very personal obsession of creating narrative scenarios in small format. On a general level, he aims to illustrate the process that forms our inner landscape by using pre-existing media as a starting point, certain boundaries are set by the material, which he aims to transform through his process.  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’.

The process that Alexander Korzer uses is called decoupage which means to cut out in French. The process is very precise and accurate. Influenced by a tradition of cut work that includes the paper cutting of the ancient Chinese, the felt appliqués found among the Siberian peoples, and the Polish folk art of paper cutting, decoupage originated in France in the 17th century as a means of decorating bookcases, cabinets, and other pieces of furniture.

Alexander said that he came up with the innovative design about five years ago. ‘I had been experimenting with paper art, trying out different avenues and making boxed paper constructions,’ he said. 'I used all sorts of printed paper for the construction, among them second hand books. 'It wasn’t a giant leap from the boxed art to using the actual book as the enclosure of its original content.' But it took me about a year of trial and error to refine the technique into the cut books I makes these days.

This is a picture of an old book Alexander had which he cut out many different pictures and pieced them together. The theme of this is clearly nature and other living things. There is: a dog, a chicken, a bird, a flower, leaves, people (guards), a snake and many more. What makes the piece unique and interesting is the excessive use of colours and how pictures can almost become camouflage because of it. The layering of pictures, in front of each other, allows the piece to look busy and like an actual forest or other wildlife. Furthermore, size is not an issue and is very clearly exaggerated. Evidence that shows this is that the bird is the same height as the dog that is almost the same height as the queen’s guards. On the other hand, there are clearly aspects of fiction involved.

The piece is 3D so therefore texture is included in the piece. Also, primary and secondary colours are used in the piece. This piece expresses happiness, joy and how a mix of things can still co-operate. When layering the different pieces over each other, there is an effect of a busy atmosphere and togetherness not matter shape or size. The piece actually seems inspirational because of the tone and colours used; and the message brought across to viewers.

The viewer is encouraged to see the brown, large, dog first because it is the widest object in the piece and looks like it is in the centre of the piece. This piece could have been created to show the importance of some of the little things in the world that we should take time to appreciate. Furthermore, Alexandra could have created this piece to show that everyone is equal and so we should respect one another.

This piece relates to my work because of the cut outs. In my pieces I cut out several buildings and at times layered them on top of each other so that they could look busy and detailed. Furthermore, the use of colours made me to think about the emotions that could be created by it. I began experimenting with many different colours in order to achieve the perfect colours for my final piece. This piece definitely helped me with my details due to the refined accuracy of the pieces of paper. I knew that to achieve an effective piece I would need detail, colour texture and accuracy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is another piece by Alexandra. In the book you can see: soldiers, leaders, animals, plants, ropes and a ladder, a horse, the inside parts of an animal, fruits and many more. I believe this is about nature again but this time more people are involved. At the front there are soldiers in black and white standing in rows and all their equipment is in black and white too. Then there are soldiers in colour near the back and free roaming animals all around. The piece is very busy and almost resembles a ship. In my opinion, this is about people colonising land in the past and how they still are; it’s about endangered animals, overcrowded land and destroyed rain forests. The scene looks too busy and some animals and plants are in black and white too- this could mean that it is human property now and gradually everything would be cold and dark if people keep taking the life out of nature.

The piece, again, is 3D and has quite a rough texture with a wide range of primary and secondary colours and tones. The piece is missing space, it is very busy which effectively emphasizes the disturbance humans are creating to nature. Light shades are used for the black and white soldiers and leaders to show that they are dead now but still wildlife is destroyed – as if their ghosts are still there. I believe the messages that can be interpreted from this piece are very emotive and effective in interesting a viewer. The viewers eyes are led to any centre piece with colour first as it stands out and then gradually to the edges and the black and white sections.

This piece could have been created as a form of propaganda to the idea of hurting animals and nature. Finally, this influenced my pieces because of the pieces layered over each other and the effective colours used. I enjoyed the way that Alexander gets his view across through his art. Again, this inspired me to have a meaning behind my pieces, meanings that were special to me and influenced me.