Members & Friends Exhibition 2026: Meet the Artist - Marie Bryan

 

Introduction

Marie Bryan is one of the many featured artists for this years exhibition, having submitted a fabricated metal sculpture titled "Draoi Buí Draoi Cróga Draoi Scéil: Solar Alien". During this interview, Marie shares deep insight into the process and philosophy behind it.

Interview with Marie Bryan

1. What inspired your submission for this year's "Members and Friends" Exhibition, and were there any particular people, places, experiences or events that influenced it?

I am always intrigued that there seems to be no alien life in other star systems, because no liquid water has been observed out there. I wanted to invent an alien who was decidedly fictional and also quite friendly, so I proposed a Solar Alien, beaming yellow. Draoi Buí Draoi Cróga Draoi Scéil: Solar Alien is both sunspark and sun God, and most omniscient. I have been doing space art projects, and loving the work. I really enjoyed exhibiting at MTU Blackrock Castle Observatory and at Spacefest 2025 last year. There is quite a buzz to meeting scientists, researchers and writers through this interdisciplinary pursuit.

2. What led you to choose the medium used for your work? How did it help you express your ideas?

This steel fabrication was an ATU Galway sculpture brief called Geometric Solids, where we were to learn about working with steel. I began by constructing a pentagonal dodecahedron with the help of the sculpture lecturer, Ger Leslie. Steel inspired the formidable. It inspired strength and strength of spirit.

Also, I have a background in painting, and I became fixated on finding a warm yellow. This took several sessions of spraying. I wanted my strong steel piece to have approachability.

3. What do you hope viewers take away from your work? Whether emotionally, intellectually or otherwise.

I was aiming for alien, and I guess this looks like something new to viewers. I would like to think that there is more for us, and I would like to inspire this hope in others. Life can be wearying, and we need positive surprises for reinvigoration and inspiration. 

I would like that viewers see the fun in the disarming yellow, spikey angular steel fabrication, a unique contradiction in terms. I would like it to put a positive yellow emoji on viewers' subconscious.

4. Did your original vision for this piece change during its creation? If so, how and why?

My original drawings were of a star with crooked starlight. The idea of bending time fascinates me.  My proposed piece, with twelve pentagonal bending spikes, was both ginormous and needing a lot of worktime. It was scaled back to this, with just one spike coming from the dodecahedron, and just the first part of that spike built solid. I was happy to pick up the slack, by including narrative with further potential, in ogham inscriptions, and by developing that narrative further in the film module of the course. Our film lecturer, Louise Manifold, emphasized story boarding. 

5. Is your sculpture thematically intertwined with your other works?

The resultant film, Meet Me on a Rock, is an intense two and a half minutes of new religion.  It tends to be either not noticed, or watched several times. Draoi Buí Draoi Cróga Draoi Scéil: Solar Alien gets to tell his story, and as he narrates, he compels the actress to do his bidding, to attain the party to end all parties: paradise with Armageddon. I edited sound to find a cute alien voice, which I found irresistible: you couldn’t but follow him!  Also in the film is another sculpture, a rocket filled with yellow balloons, which I am instructed to launch, west of Galway. With no engine in the rocket, my determined endeavors are laughable. Comic performance is a major part of my artistic expression.