Mary Branson is best known for her large-scale conceptual light works and installations, particularly the iconic ‘New Dawn’ 2016 sculpture in the Houses of Parliament, which celebrates the centenary of the Suffrage movement. It is the first permanent piece of contemporary abstract 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 in collaboration with Surrey Hills Arts, highlighting the plight of farmers facing climate change.
Mary is an award-winning print maker, a choreographer for a number of performance and dance events, and 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.
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 uses 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 can encompass elements of performance, photography, film and sound as forms of documentation. She also produces smaller scale works in glass and ceramics.