Brian Birch, a Wurundjeri man is a descendant of the Yarra Yarra tribe of Melbourne, Victoria. Born in 1936 he did not begin painting until late in life. After leaving school at 14, Birch began a five year apprenticeship as a finisher with Julius Marlow Shoes in Collingwood, Victoria. However asthma plagued him and he gave up working in the dusty Collingwood factory to take a position as a gardening labourer for Fitzroy Council and then as a cleaner at St Vincent’s Hospital – a position he held for ten years.
In the late 1970s he met his second wife, Larraine when he was working as laboratory assistant and teachers’ aide in local technical schools. Larraine suffered from multiple sclerosis and Birch gave up working full-time in order to care for her.
After Larraine’s death in July 2005, Birch, who had enjoyed drawing as a teenager, enrolled in the Certificate
III course in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Arts at the North Melbourne Institute of
TAFE (
NMIT). In an interview on the
NMIT website, Birch said of his time there that it gave his life “a new sense of meaning”, and that when he is painting he feels that he is “in another place; a spiritual place where everything just comes out of me about my people and my community.” Three months into his study Birch participated in a student group exhibition at the institute’s A Space Gallery and sold three works. His works are informed by his people’s traditional stories and also of contemporary people and events. Stylistically his works vary from spontaneous, highly coloured circular marks to naive portraiture.
In 2006 at the age of 70, Birch entered his acrylic on canvas painting,
Koorie Elders and Family Dancing and Singing into the 2006 Victorian Indigenous Art Awards and won the National Gallery of Victoria Acquisitive Prize (sponsored by Judith and Leon Gorr). The judges commented that with this work Birch “made an impressive attack on the canvas and his mark making is dynamic. It is an uninhibited work that invokes the power of spirited dancing.” He was short-listed for these awards again in 2007 and 2008 with his paintings
Birrarung Triangle Dreamtime Diptych and
Celebration of Survival respectively. In October 2008, Birch was equal People’s Choice winner for his painting
Land of Hope and Happiness (exhibited at Backup Traders), in the Melbourne 2008 Fringe Festival’s “I Art Sydney Road” exhibition in Brunswick, Melbourne.
At time of writing, Birch was living and painting in Brunswick.
- Writers:
- Allas, Tess
Note:
- Date written:
- 2008
- Last updated:
- 2011
- Status:
- peer-reviewed
