Student’s tangled canvas resonates

VISUAL artist Mairin Briody has been awarded RMIT University’s Mary Oliphant Prize.

The painter and graduating student’s work, The Resonance of a Tangle, was named the most ambitious master of fine arts group critique presentation.

“I’m in my 40s now, and I never thought I’d get to art school,” she said. “I felt constant doubt, asking myself, am I even an artist? To be awarded is very affirming.”

Made from dyed textiles, Briody described her installation as an evolving painting project, and she has a goal for it to one day fill a room.

It’s been shown in multiple locations, including a light-filled stairwell during the RMIT MFA Grad Show, and a gallery space for an exam presentation.

“It starts with the idea that painting is no longer just canvas on stretched frame, but is something that’s liberated from that structure,” she said.

“I’ve worked with canvas over time, but when I was in my studio and developing ideas, I found I didn’t want to stretch canvas anymore. I wanted to move with it, roll with it, tangle it, and fold it.

“I have a very bodily response to the material. I love the texture and malleability of it, and when we stretch it, or put paint on it, it loses that. I wanted to reduce the space between me and the canvas

“The Resonance of a Tangle itself is a constantly evolving and building painting. It’s always the same painting in the space, but reconfigured over time, and I add to it.”

Briody said having her work in the stairwell, a space of movement and stained glass, was a challenge.

“I had to find a way to work with the painting and the space that was in harmony,” she said. “It was a collaboration between me, the canvas and the space.”