She enjoys the challenge of using landscape and architecture as a backdrop to site determined pieces. She often works with large teams of volunteers to help her realise her ambitious use of scale and finds the shared ownership of the community an important part of her artistic process.
As many of her installations are temporary, Mary’s projects encompass elements of performance, photography, film and sound as forms of documentation. She also produces smaller scale works in glass and ceramics.
Her work is rooted in a sensitivity to landscape, politics, and the passage of time —often transforming architectural and natural settings into spaces of collective reflection.
She is a member of the historic London Group and the Royal Society of Sculptors
Mary Branson is best known for her large-scale light works and installations,
particularly the iconic ‘New Dawn’ sculpture in the Houses of Parliament, which
celebrates the centenary of the Suffrage movement. It is the first permanent piece of
contemporary art in the Palace of Westminster. She has created light and sound
works for the London 2012 Olympics, Royal Holloway University, Salisbury Cathedral
and ‘Harvest’ a huge site specific installation at Box Hill, Surrey, highlighting the
plight of farmers facing climate change.
Mary is an award winning print maker, a choreographer for performance and dance
events, a mentor and public speaker. She has held a number of artistic residencies,
including for Parliament, the British Council, Crisis, RHS Wisley and Watts Gallery,
where she led an art group for women prisoners at HMP Send.