A festive artwork by Susie MacMurray

This is a specially commissioned work to celebrate the festive season. It has links with Manchester Art Gallery’s current exhibition Angels of Anarchy: Women Artists and Surrealism, as well as the chandelier Porca Miseria! by Ingo Maurer, currently on display in the Gallery of Craft and Design.

Susie MacMurray references Meret Oppenheim’s iconic surrealist Object, a teacup, saucer and spoon covered completely in fur. However, here, a wine glass is used as a comment on femininity and to celebrate female friendship and camaraderie. Women are now more likely to meet for a glass of wine than a cup of tea.

Each glass is individually rimmed with lipstick. Cosmetics, particularly lipstick, are often advertised as a way to enhance feminine power and choice. One cosmetic company even used the slogan “It’s not makeup, it’s ammunition”.

Susie explains

While thinking of ‘strong women’ femininity, power and Christmastime, I couldn’t help but remember the Boots TV commercials with crowds of women getting glammed up with make-up and marching out to celebrate to the catchy tune ‘Here come the Girls’, by the Sugarbabes. I hope visitors will find the work beautiful and celebratory - it is made for a space where people gather to celebrate art, to hold events, during which glasses are raised and toasts are made. It is also intended to encourage thought on how female power/empowerment is now perceived, its various guises – cultural/political/sexual, as well as the ways women choose to exercise it, the ambiguities it throws up and the psychological bargains we strike with ourselves.