I have worked in many varied fields within the arts for fifty years as a performer, teacher, theatre designer, prop maker, production and project advisor, gallery director and curator and workshop coordinator.
My life long interest in making from salvaged elements has its roots in post war Britain, a time of austerity and uncertainty. My parents were politically and socially conscious, northern working class people and highly creative. They acquired skills out of necessity.
I trained as a dancer at the Ballet Rambert School under Dame Marie Rambert, dancing with her company in the sixties and, later, performing for other companies in Europe.
In 1967 I married dancer-choreographer Christopher Bruce.
My visual art studies began in 1975. I was privileged to be tutored by Prunella Clough during my M.A degree in Printmaking at Wimbledon School of Art. Cutting and carving wood blocks lead me into carpentry and the three dimensional world eventually connected me with stage and costume design.
My practice is solitary and silent, similar in nature to the “Outsider” artists in its obsessive nature. Certain creators challenge and inform my making; their convictions sustain and support my intention to chart my own territory without constraint: they are, amongst others, Eva Hesse, Doris Salcedo, Michel Nedjar, Judith Scott, Miroslaw Balka, Louise Bourgeois and Ron Mueck.
Much of my visual art work has focused on the plight of the oppressed and the complex vulnerability of humanity, acknowledging the courage of damaged and desperate people in crisis worldwide.
Creative activity nurtures essential life enhancing attributes: curiosity, imagination, resourcefulness and independence – benefits which cannot be measured.
I invite a the viewer to engage, interpret and, hopefully, experience their own new perspectives.
Marian Bruce 2019
Photo Credits: Nicole Gaurino, David Oakley and Mark Bruce. Private view images copyright Bermondsey Project Space. Artist portrait: Ciara Nolan.