‘for love and honour as an inspiration’

The piece is a contemporary response to the Prometheus (or Captive) Vase, created by Mintons in 1875. The original embodied the Victorian taste for the dramatic, speaking of noble causes and lost hopes. The Titan- Prometheus famously gave the human race the gift of fire, an action for which he was punished by Zeus, the sky and thunder God.

Of particular significance to this work is the Journey of Tom Hurndall, documented in the book, The Only House Left Standing, a personal account of his final months in the Middle East. The work reflects on those who feel compelled to act against injustice and then find themselves in a conflict zone, their lives taken for a noble cause. The underlying theme of war is expressed across the piece, suggesting a psychology of violence where conquest and the assertion of power over others is a historical continuum.

The original Prometheus Vase now resides in the permanent collection of Manchester Art Gallery. (Vase Dimensions – 110x55 cms).

https://manchesterartgallery.org/collections/title/?mag-object-74