Susie MacMurray: Murmur

SUSIE MACMURRAY MURMUR PANGOLIN LONDON

FOREWORD

Susie MacMurray in her studio, July 2020

A distant murmur, what might it mean? It could be the sign of something benign, a gentle breeze blowing through a tree, or an ill wind that blows no good. Susie MacMurray’s latest work resonates with these uncertain and unforgiving times. As much of daily life feels becalmed, and all our future’s overclouded, the artist invites us to appreciate the inherent beauty of ostrich feathers and buds of wax suspended in space. But on closer observation they are lassoed, caught on the talons of hundreds of fishing hooks. All is not as it seems.

MacMurray speaks of the friction inherent in her work in terms of a family dynamic. A parent wants their children to fly the nest but with that hope comes anxiety about their wellbeing. “It’s about letting go,” she says leaving fears unspoken.

It is no accident that each group of feathers forms a pair, as if siblings bonded. Stand back from Murmur, and MacMurray’s installation resembles a flock of birds taking flight. Like a murmuration of swallows or swifts, individual pieces seem to be in close communication, a complex choreographed movement in which no part collides, against all odds.

Seeing Murmur as it took shape in the artist’s studio this summer, she began the work during lockdown, I was struck by how it expressed our collective longing to escape our homes, interact with the wider world, to go places and meet others with the spontaneity that the majority of us took for granted pre pandemic.

MacMurray speaks of the way as we get older we envy the devil-may-care attitude of youth.

Murmur speaks of how in a few short weeks we had to adjust. We are now hyper cautious social creatures, older people, and those with fragile health, more than others.

The artist’s latest work cannot be pinned down to a time of pandemic, however. She has long explored the fine line between fragility and strength, attraction and jeopardy. She has also used ostrich feathers in the past. So, Murmur is a continuation of earlier works, not least Icarus (2012).

The flamboyant wearable sculpture in the form of an ostrich-feather robe was also the result of hours of painstaking work by the artist and her assistants. Seeing the boxes of left-over feathers in her studio provided a fresh starting point, MacMurray explains.

The fishing hooks that give her new work a scalpel-sharp foil to the seductive plumage, recall the artist’s use of red velvet juxtaposed by the shiny black shells of mussels for her memorable wall installation in 2006-7. Called simply Shell–the artist has an enviable ear for titles–her breakthrough work featured row up row of pairs of sea creatures, its soft tissues replaced by the dark-red fabric.

Like Murmur, Shell spoke of seduction and loss, a reference to the loveless marriage that inspired the building of in the early 19th century of a townhouse in Chichester, now the home of Pallant House Gallery. It mixed dark and light, the hard and the soft.

3

4

(left) Shell (detail) (below) Cloud installed in Winchester’s Great Hall in 2015; Shell installed at Pallant House Gallery in 2006-07.

MacMurray is best known for her site-specific works. The former professional musician, who played with Manchester’s Hallé among other orchestras, transitioned into a visual artist two decades ago.

A standout early work called Flock (2005) was a tour de force made of hand-dyed black turkey feathers. Stratum (2012) was as impressive, this time transforming the vast floor space of the 19thcentury Islington Mill in Salford. She blanketed the former mill turned arts space in 80kg of fine, white down feathers. The materials she brings together in unexpected and original ways invariable remain recognisable, just.

When safe to do so, MacMurray was joined by two industrious assistants to create the hundreds of individual parts that make up the whole that is Murmur. Pinned on the studio wall is a daily tally of feathers completed, hours, days, weeks of work. The completed work might belie the sum total of that intense labour, but it is the accumulation of feather barbs, some darker, some lighter, marble-like wax and the steel wire they are suspended from that gives the work an obsessive quality. Its dimensions are variable, until raw materials, space and makers are exhausted.

A white-cube gallery like Pangolin London, housed within a new-build is far removed from the historic spaces in which MacMurray’s large-scale installations form a call and response. She has worked with: Tatton Park House (Gathering, 2019); Southwark Cathedral (Doubt, 2015); Winchester’s Great Hall (Cloud, 2015), and Kedleston Hall (Promenade, 2010). But Murmur still manages to resonate with its surroundings. It speaks of the musical performances of King Place, now sadly on hold. Meanwhile, in the building above the newsrooms of the Guardian still hum. The murmur of music, of news, lives uplifted and lives on hold, amid upheaval and uncertainty, a sense of time, combine to provide a fitting backdrop. It reflects the constant movement in and around King’s Cross and St Pancras stations nearby.

Murmur is on one level a haunting metaphor for the way we are now, feeling our way, actively listening, hopeful and fearful. It’s a work that is timeless and time specific, light as air and anchored fast.

JAVIER PES Freelance arts writer and former editor of The Art Newspaper

5

Title Date, Material Edition Dimensions 6

CATALOGUE

Title Date, Material Edition Dimensions 7

Gathering 2020, Silk velvet and barbed wire Unique 190 x 70 x 55 cm 8

Gauze Bandage Drawing III 2019, Ink on paper Unique 152 x 121 cm

10

Gauze Bandage Drawing II 2019, Ink on paper Unique 152 x 121 cm

11

Cluster 2020, Wax and wire Unique 55 x 60 x 15 cm 12

13

Carapace 2020, Bronze Unique 8 x 36 x 16 cm 14

Title Date, Material Edition Dimensions 16

Title Date, Material Edition Dimensions 17

Murmur 2020, Ostrich feather barbs, piano wire, fish hooks, wax and upholstery thread Edition of 3 Dimensions: Site specific 18

Murmur Study I 2020, Ink on paper Unique 15 x 45.2 cm 20

Murmur Study II 2020, Ink on paper Unique 13 x 77 cm 21

Title Date, Material Edition Dimensions 22

Sisters 2020, Wax, silk velvet, sheep’s wool and perspex box Unique 26 x 25 x 25 cm

23

Shards 2020, Bronze Unique 33 x 6 x 6 cm (each) 24

Edge 2019, Acrylic on paper Unique 36 x 46 cm 26

Rapunzel 2020, Wax and black wire Unique 76.5 x 28 x 28 cm 27

Foundling 2020, Sliced deer antlers, silk velvet and stuffing Unique 10 x 44 x 10 cm 28

30

32

(left) Antler Study I 2020, Ink on paper Unique 23 x 30.9 cm (right) Shaman 2020, Sliced deer antler, waxed thread, silk velvet and stuffing Unique 22 x 130 x 22 cm 33

Submission 2020, Wire and silk velvet Unique 12 x 30 x 15 cm 34

35

Clutch 2019, Silk velvet, wax and fish hooks Unique 12 x 16 x 16 cm 36

37

Lockdown Thread Drawing I 2020, Canvas and cotton thread Unique 40 x 30 cm 38

40

Mother II 2018, Leather, iron wire and silk velvet Unique 66 x 14 x 5 cm 41

42

Cluster II 2020, Wax, silk velvet and wire Unique 53 x 101 x 20 cm 44

Title Date, Material Edition Dimensions 46

Talisman 2020, Wax, silk velvet and steel ring Unique 47 x 24 x 22 cm 47

Mother and Child 2020, Antler, silk velvet and wax Unique 9 x 26 x 8 cm 48

50

(left) Crescent 2019, Ink on paper Unique 35 x 25 cm (right) Fissure Study I 2020, Ink on paper Unique 29.5 x 21 cm

51

Object 2020, Silk velvet and wax Unique 82 x 12 x 8 cm 52

Silver Carapace V 2020, Sterling silver Unique 6 x 17 x 10 cm 54

Silver Carapace I 2020, Sterling silver Unique 5.5 x 13 x 8 cm 55

Mother 2018, Felted wool, wax, silk velvet, linen thread and iron wire Unique 38 x 10 x 10 cm 56

Strange Fruit 2017-18 Silk velvet and reclaimed military barbed wire Unique 70 x 140 x 28 cm 58

(left) Trench Map Drawing 2 2015, Ink on paper Unique 30.5 x 23 cm 60

(right) Trench Map Drawing 3 2015, Ink on paper Unique 30.5 x 23 cm

62

Anaconda 2013, Handmade aluminium rings Unique 65 x 55 x 35 (approx.)

63

Brood 2020, Wax and fish hooks Unique 7 x 9 x 9 cm 64

65

Tied Hairnets no 3 2014, Ink on paper Unique 121 x 152 cm 66

Chastity 2020, Silk velvet and wire Unique 30 x 27 x 15 cm 68

Title Date, Material Edition Dimensions 69

Ink & Watercolour Study (Blue II) 2020, Ink and watercolour on paper Unique 30.9 x 23 cm 70

Title Date, Material Edition Dimensions 72

(far left) Silver Carapace II (Brooch) 2020, Sterling silver Unique 2 x 7 x 3 cm

(left) Silver Carapace IV (Pendant) 2020, Sterling silver Unique 8 x 5 x 2.5 cm

(right) Silver Carapace III (Pendant) 2020, Sterling silver Unique 8 x 5 x 2.5 cm 73

Pan 2018, Antlers and silk velvet Unique 30 x 16 x 13 cm

74

Title Date, Material Edition Dimensions 75

76

Nest 2018, Wax, fishing hooks and steel bowl Unique 12.5 x 12.5 x 9 cm 77

Hearsay IV 2020, Ostrich feathers and gesso on canvas Unique 76 x 102 x 37 cm 78

Title Date, Material Edition Dimensions 80

Boat People 2017, Reclaimed military barbed wire, found wood and silk velvet Unique 22 x 38 x 18 cm

81

Gauze Bandage Drawing I 2018, Ink on paper Unique 152 x 121 cm 82

Eve 2013, Rubber air compressor hose, wax and steel bracket Unique 33 x 33 x 26 cm 84

85

Medusa 2014-15, Handmade copper chain mail over fibreglass and steel armature Edition of 2 182.9 x 243.8 x 243.8 cm 86

88

89

SUSIE MACMURRAY b. 1959, UK

2000-2001 MA Fine Art. Manchester Metropolitan University 1997-2000 BA Sculpture. Manchester Metropolitan University 1996-1997 Foundation in Art and Design. Manchester College of Arts & Technology 1982-1983 National Centre for Orchestral Studies, Goldsmiths, London 1979-1982 Fellowship, Trinity College of Music, London SELECTED SOLO AND GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2020 Murmur (solo show), Pangolin London

Cure3 Fundraiser, UK Fabric: Touch and Identity, Compton Verney, Warwickshire, UK 2019 Gathering, site specific commission, Tatton Park Mansion, Cheshire, UK Parallel Lines: Drawing & Sculpture, Royal Society of Sculptors, London, UK 2018 Strange Fruit (solo show), Akbank Sanat, Istanbul Turkey Doubt, site specific commission, Southwark Cathedral, London, UK Masquerade (solo show), St Albans Museum and Art Gallery, UK 2017

Susie MacMurray, Recent Work (solo show), Mall Galleries, London, UK

2016 Hinterland (solo show), Danese/Corey, New York, USA Susie MacMurray, A Retrospective (solo show), Atkinson Gallery, Somerset, UK Dangerous Beauty, Maier Museum, Virginia, USA Bedazzled, Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx NYC, USA Goodbye To All That, Manchester Art Gallery 2015 Cloud, site specific commission, Winchester Great Hall Halo, site specific commission, York Art Gallery Watershed, Hall Place, Bexley, Kent 2014 Summer Exhibition, Danese Corey, New York Finding the Value, York St. Mary’s, York, UK Winfield House, (American Ambassadors Residence) Regent’s Park, London, UK 2013 Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK Beastly Hall, Hall Place, Bexley, Kent (Artwise Curators for Bexley Heritage Trust), UK Walking on the Rim of Night (solo show), Danese/Corey, New York, USA Resonance, site specific commission, Fabrica, Brighton, UK Siren (solo show), Thomas Williams Gallery, London 90

2012 Sculptors Drawings, Pangolin London Unnatural ‘Natural History’, Coates & Scarry/RWA, Bristol Resonance (solo show), Rochester Art Gallery, Rochester Pandamonium, Hyde Park, London, Artwise Curators for WWF Stratum, site-specific commission, Islington Mill, Salford House of Beasts, Meadow Arts, Attingham Park, Shropshire 2011 The Eyes of the Skin (solo show), Agnew’s Gallery, London The Power of Making, Victoria & Albert Museum, London Compulsive Obsessive Repetitive, Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, UK Wedded Perfection, Munson-Williams-Proctor Art Institute, Utica NY, USA Platform, Agnew’s Gallery, London Aware: Art Fashion Identity, GSK Contemporary, Royal Academy, London 2010 Wedded Perfection, Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio, USA Promenade, site-specific commission, Keddleston Hall, Derbyshire, UK Frangetta, site-specific commission (permanent), Warehouse 112, Venetian Arsenale

(Spazio Thetis) Italy Repurpose, Reuse, Recycle, City of Brea Art Gallery, Los Angeles, USA Dead or Alive, Museum of Art and Design, New York, USA Widow, Platt Hall, Manchester Art Gallery, Gallery of Costume, UK 2009 Here Come the Girls, site-specific commission, Manchester Art Gallery Widow (solo show), Queens Hall, Hexham, Northumberland UK Salon09, Matt Roberts Arts, Vyner St, London Re-Addressing Identities, Katonah Museum of Art, NY, USA Lost & Found (solo show), Islington Mill, Salford Upcycling, Museum of Architecture & Design, Los Angeles, USA Time/change, site-specific commission, Nottingham Castle 2008 Second Lives, Museum of Art and Design, New York, USA, September 2008/April 09 The Baltic Frame, Arena Gallery, Liverpool Drawn (solo show), UH Galleries, University of Hertfordshire, UK Miasma, site-specific commission, Florence Nightingale Museum, London Object as Muse, Crafts Council, Touring Exhibition 2008/09 Body Space, Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery, Carlisle 2007 Unbound, Turnpike Gallery, Leigh Drop, commission for collection, Wolverhampton Art Gallery 2006 Shell, site-specific commission, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, July 2006/July 2007 Echo, site-specific commission, York St Mary’s, York Museums Trust, UK 91

2005 Jerwood Drawing Prize Exhibition, Jerwood Space, London (touring exhibition) Susie MacMurray, Garment Sculptures, Castle Gallery, Nottingham Conversations on the Subject of Feminism, Cornerhouse, Manchester Art Frankfurt, with Philips Contemporary Art Gallery Flock, York Art Gallery, March 2005/Oct 2006 The Nestingbox Project, Borgloon, Belgium Knit 2 Together, Crafts Council Galleries, London (touring exhibition) International Open Exhibition, Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast, NI 2004 Air, Vespolate and Novara, Italy (touring exhibition) Fili Spezzati, Como, Italy Argus, Firstsite@the minories art gallery, Colchester, UK Robe / Rêve: Rêve de Robe, Musee des Beaux-Arts, Calais, France Caryatids, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester Plastica d’Artista, Palazzo Mantica, Pordenone, Italy Flock, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester 2003 Bagutta Life, Manhattan, New York Thermo 03, The Lowry, Salford Art 2003, With Philips Gallery, London Designersblock, Milan, Italy 3 English Women in Paris, Maxalto, Paris 2002 Art Take Away, Cornerhouse, Manchester Ladies Only, Liverpool Biennial, Collect Gallery, Brundel St Warehouse, Liverpool 2001

All Colours Will Agree In the Dark, Cornerhouse, Manchester

AWARDS RIBA Regent Street Windows 2016, People Choice award with Knox Bhavan Architects & Molton Brown Shortlisted, NMWA, Women to Watch 2012, Washington DC Nominated, Northern Art Prize 2011 British Council travel grant 2010 Professional Development Award, The Arts Council England, 2008 Nominated, Northern Art Prize, 2007 Abbey Harris Mural Fund Award, 2006 Shortlisted, Jerwood Drawing Prize. 2005 Research and Development Award, The Arts Council Eng land. 2004 Shortlisted, Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery, Textiles on Site Commission 2004 Shortlisted, Crosby Homes Art Prize, Manchester Art Gallery August 2003

92

Gathering (detail) 2020, Silk velvet and barbed wire Unique 190 x 70 x 55 cm

93

Installation photographs of ‘Murmur’ exhibition 94

95

96

97

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Our thanks go to Susie MacMurray for all her hard work in bringing this exhibition together, and Rose for her special companionship. We would also like to thank Javier Pes for his beautiful foreword, Janet Durbin and Jenny O’Brien for all their help with the installation, Ben Blackall and Steve Russell Studios for their photography, and the team at Pangolin Editions for their skill in casting Susie’s new works in bronze and silver.

Please note that the dimensions of the works on paper are unframed sizes.

Published to coincide with the exhibition: Susie MacMurray ‘Murmur’ 21st October - 22nd December 2020 Pangolin London Kings Place, 90 York Way, London, N1 9AG T: 020 7520 1480 E: gallery@pangolinlondon.com www.pangolinlondon.com ISBN 978-1-9993760-6-2 Printed in Gill Sans Designed by Pangolin London Photography by Ben Blackall and Steve Russell Studios Printed by Healey’s Printers © Pangolin London, 2020. All Rights Reserved 98