Catalogue Above Reality

Robbie Cornelissen makes installations, films and, above all, drawings. Drawing is in fact the basis of his artistic work. His monumental drawings, often large format, are comprised of innumerable grey pencilled lines that combine to form mysterious images. Cornelissen generally draws imaginary architectural structures from which there is no escape. The absence of people in Cornelissen’s most recent work reinforces the atmosphere of timelessness and oppression. Although the places he has drawn came from Cornelissen’s mind, it’s as though they had always existed and have now simply become visible.

The structures are reminiscent of the unending constructions of Escher or computer-grids. As on-looker, you feel as though you could step into the drawings – an effect that is even clearer in Cornelissen’s films. Once ‘inside’, you could easily get lost in his libraries, cities or stations full of dazzling details. The reproduction of structures is so neutral and business-like that you can actually wander around freely. In recent years Robbie Cornelissen has been pushing back the borders of drawing by making animation films too, or by allowing the public to participate in making a horizontal, 20-metre long, line drawing.