Graceful, Ephemeral and Opulent; The Art of Susie MacMurray

A first encounter with the work of artist Susie MacMurray inevitably places the viewer right at the centre of the key issue in her work - the tension between extremes of sensual and aesthetic response: Ying / yang; anima / animus; soft / hard; a dress / not a dress; love / death; freedom / constraint; power / submission.
--- Excerpt from the accompanying catalogue of the exhibit "The Eyes of the Skin" at Agnew's Gallery.

Susie MacMurray's use of materials is provocative and perturbing. A bridal gown is ironically made out of thousands of household gloves, an allusion on domestic reality. Each glove is turned inside out to reveal its pale downy interior, like flayed skin, they are testament to the vulnerability of humankind. Though disparate in their appearance, each of MacMurray's work is linked by its evocation of the body or the bodily. Transforming the banal - hairnets, balloons, wires, cling film, pins and household gloves - into the graceful and opulent, the creations emerge as spectacular sculptures.

Susie MacMurray lives and works in Manchester, UK. Her work was recently on show at the Victoria & Albert Museum's The Power of Making and has previously been exhibited at the Royal Academy, London, Manchester Art Gallery, Museum of Art and Design, NY, and the Museum of Architecture & Design, Los Angeles. Her most recent art pieces (The Eyes of the Skin) were on view at Agnew's Gallery, London.

Susie MacMurray

Garment Sculptures

A Mixture of Frailties, 2004
1400 yellow household gloves turned inside out, calico

Gladrags, 2002
10,000 fuschia pink balloons, rug underlay

Icon, 2002
15,000 metallic blue balloons, rug underlay

Widow, 2009
Black napa leather, 43 kg adamantine dress maker's pins


Feast, 2011
Food wrap, thread, steel bracket

Wax pieces
Anima 2011
Rubber air compressor hose, wax, steel bracket

Animus 2011
Rubber air compressor hose, wax, shell bracket

Swarm II, 2011
Wax, steel pins

Attachment 2011

Wax, fish hooks

Drawings

Gauze Bandage no. 6, 2011

Ink on paper

Stretched Hairnet no. 1, 2011

Ink on paper

Courtesy of Susie MacMurray / Agnew's Gallery

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