Rencontre – Mixed Media Collage on Wood

The Original

Rencontre by Robin Rivers is an original piece of mixed media collage on paper from the Albertine Series. I created this piece using antique postcards, archival materials, found photography,handmade papers, and acrylic medium. 

The piece measures 15×17″ (w/h) unframed and is mounted on wood. Shipping will be calculated based on location.  Please note that colours and contrast vary between different monitors.  The colours may not match your monitor’s display exactly. Additionally, copyright of my artwork does not transfer with purchase.

The Inspiration for Rencontre by Robin Rivers

Paris, the city of light, romance, wonder. At times, it may seem cliché. But, what of its magic? Its way of drawing one in and reconstructing how we perceive the world? Through the Albertine series, I wanted to explore how memory and time fragment, reconstructing themselves into spaces that live vividly in our experience, even when they are not a faithful representation of the original.

Through the social landscapes, I take single antique postcards from often-anonymous Parisian street photographers and build a narrative around them that explores not only the romance and longing of Albertine, but the wider social context of the eras from which the postcards emerged. This reimagining allows for a deeper sense of personal and societal remembering of the realities of Paris.

Rencontre is inspired by the boats and bridges along the Seine, along with the vintage Vue de Nuit postcards of the early 20th century. This piece includes archival images from Jean Berain, Regiomontanus, Musée Carnavalet archives, and poetry from Adolphe Pelleport alongside my Albertine and a vintage postcard of a view of the Eiffel Tower at night from the Seine. It employs vellum, antique paper and gold paint along with matte medium. It speaks to a moment when Henri is photographing the tower and is transported back to Pelleport’s poem about an encounter and the first night he and Albertine met.

The Artist

Robin Rivers is a multidisciplinary storyteller. She explores cultural memory keeping and technologies of circulation—how stories and images travel between people and across generations. Her practice folds writing and original photography into my mixed-media collage process. She examines how documented archives and personal interpretation shape our shared understanding of the past and how preservation itself is shaped by power, privilege, and historical upheaval. Robin creates all pieces at Studio Albertine in Vancouver, Canada—on the unceded territory of the Coast Salish Peoples. This includes the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

Before you go, check out more of my work HERE.

Finally, be sure to follow me on SUBSTACK