Porcelain, gold lustre, blue pigment and transparent glaze highlights
H 65cm
PROVENANCE: Private Collection, UK
EXHIBITED: Contemporary Applied Arts, London 2007
'Ecstasy is something of a rare emotion nowadays. I don't mean the quick fix, but the deep, glowing rapture that comes when one being is won over by some greater, higher power. Yet ecstasy is one of the words Claire Curneen uses to describe the feelings of her St Sebastian figures. They look so much at ease, so relaxed, with their classical contrapposto undisturbed, that they seem far removed from any extremes of psychological tension. This surface calm is only a part of their character, however, for it conceals great reserves of inner strength. As Curneen is quick to point out, Sebastian does not die from his ordeal; he lives through it, he revives from the trance to resume his saintly life. Just look at the arrows; where they pierce the flesh, it is not blood that flows, but gold.'
Timothy Wilcox for the accompanying catalogue to the Claire Curneen exhibition at Contemporary Applied Art, 2002
Artist's Other Pieces
