Claudia Sarnthein

Lives and works in London, UK

Artist statement

I work predominately with multi-textured installations that combine painting, drawing, embroidery and ceramics. I draw on my central European heritage – its arts and crafts, folklore, rituals, mysticism, pagan and monotheistic traditions, always in relation to the handmade, the interior or sacred space. It is its mise-en-scene, its still-lives and patterns that interest me most, choreographing constellations and modes of display – the individual piece carefully embedded within the syntax of the wider ensemble. ............................................ Notes on displayed images – Glamour, mixed-media installation, 2024/25 GLAMOUR Cinematic ensemble. Polyptych core. A majestic cluster of four images governs the scene – Falcon, encompassing vast land, line of flight, sepia. Delirious poster girl, Luna, flickering through the night. Archangel, sheltering an owl, emissary of higher spheres. Emperor, motionless, yet gowned in opulence and anticipation. Mantling the floor, Penumbra, planetary kaleidoscope in shimmering threads. Chanteuse in purple garment, scintillating at midnight, the neighbouring stars. To either side – Bouquet on faded silk/garlanding pelts, in apricot, Sweet. In native elegance, Plumes, sovereign, as head dress or wall décor. Pariah, overseeing the wide stage from afar, blinded by melancholia. Glamour negotiates the archaic allure of the term, with its middle English/Old French origins, in the sense of enchantment or spell, evoking its celluloid...

Artwork