Spawn

This artwork featured in House of Beasts (2012).

Constructed only from clear latex balloons and water, Spawn is an artwork about the powerful but fragile, temporary nature of all life. Everything has a time and a season, and nothing stays the same or lasts forever.

Latex is a natural, biodegradable material, harvested as a milky fluid from rubber trees. Artist Susie MacMurray sees latex as a metaphor for lifeblood. It is broken down and perishes when exposed to ultraviolet light. For MacMurray, this suggests what happens to skin and to our bodies as they age and are exposed to sunlight.

As soon as Spawn was made it started to change. Beginning as plump, sparkling clear spheres, it gradually became cloudy, shrank or disintegrated as the sun’s rays acted upon it. The rate of decay depends on the weather and the amount of sunlight affecting the work. Over a few days, as the balloons were weakened by daylight, the pressure of the water inside them became too much and they randomly burst or leaked and withered until the artwork itself perished.

Temporary Artwork at Attingham Park

On Thursday 5th April 2012, visitors to Attingham Park joined in with House of Beasts artist Susie MacMurray as she created a sparkling temporary installation artwork, Spawn, on Attingham’s front lawn. Each person added their own balloon to the artwork and the balloons burst at random over the next few days, until there was nothing left.

Image: Susie MacMurray, Spawn, latex balloons and water, installation view, House of Beasts, Attingham Park, 2012. Image courtesy of Meadow Arts. 

 

About the artist

Susie MacMurray

Susie MacMurray exhibited in Blur, Hereford College of Arts, 2016,  commissioned by Meadow Arts in partnership with Hereford College of Arts. MacMurray also exhibited in House of Beasts, Attingham Park, 2012, commissioned by Meadow Arts.

Image: Susie MacMurray, Herd. Cut antlers, silk velvet & ply. Meadow Arts commission 2011.