Mary-Louise Browne

Art is a four-letter word
Sue Gardiner
2006
From Gallery News, Auckland Art Gallery, Toi o Tamaki, Auckland, New Zealand

Do you remember standing up against the wall when you were a kid and measuring yourself against the pencilled time- line of physical achievements- a ladder of descriptive milestones scratched onto the wall? I always stretched, posture radically improving, so I could satisfactorily reach the next level. Perhaps it was this impulse that led me to stretch out once more, this time on the floor at Anna Miles Gallery, to line up with Mary- Louise Browne’s FULL BODY, a series of nine paintings on leather. A new acquisition to the Chartwell Collection, it was ultimately destined for the verticality of a gallery wall. But in the meantime, during the acquisition process, the nine works had been laid out on the floor so the best combination of elements could be worked out for the eventual installation.
 
In the work, the connections to the body are important for both the artist and the public gallery itself. All galleries aim to engage their audiences, to establish links with them, to find a connection and FULL BODY acts like a towering invitation. With TINY FEET placed naturally near the floor, audiences are invited to take the step towards becoming a part of the work in front of them. Playing with body/object interactions, FULL BODY bridges the seemingly impenetrable gulf between the irregularity and infinity of human characteristics and language and the hard edge world of uniformly stretched canvas, clean lines and minimal aesthetic. We can simultaneously assess body and object proportions, process physical and visual data.

For the artist, FULL BODY is the culmination of a number of word works that have explored combinations of four letter words. Most recently, works made for The Love Token show in 2004, at Anna Miles Gallery, included LOVE LOCK and KISS CURL. “These were sexy works on leather that started me thinking of new and positive four letter word combinations relating to the body. Then an email from a friend announcing the birth of a new baby gave me more ideas. Describing the baby, they had typed DARK HAIR and LONG LEGS,” the artist said.

Mary Louise has chosen different kinds and colours of leather to portray differing aspects of the body. SLIM HIPS, for example, is painted on a denim blue - the red lettering looking cheekily like the red pocket tab of a pair of Levis. DARK EYES has a soft brooding quality about the colouring that suggests late nights and dim lighting - the black kohl eye makeup smudging in the early hours. SOFT EARS is painted on the most delicate pink possible making it seem like the inside of a puppy’s (or baby’s) ear while OVAL FACE is in the muted make-up tones of a Maybelline Cover-all. LEAN ARMS, in a darker brown, suggests sun- baked forearms with rougher surfaces. In fact, imperfections in the leather were sought by the artist, who described the slightly scuffed, slightly flawed leather surface easier to work with when using acrylic and enamel paints to create FULL BODY.