H55 W57cm. Coloured slips, stoneware glaze; slumped crushed glass in incised wings, slumped glass eyes

Inspired by a visit to the Tutankhamun exhibition at O2, Snake Goddess incorporates elements adapted from the cobra head on Tutankhamun’s royal headdress and the wings on Princess Sitamun’s chair. It takes its body shape from the wooden statue of Meret-Hekau from Amenhotep II’s tomb. The ancient Meret-Hekau has a human head with typical Egyptian-style hair and deadpan features. Her serpent body rises upwards on her tail, which sweeps loosely over a sledge-shaped base to balance the wings. These point forward in a shielding gesture. Snake Goddess, however, is all snake – well, 90%. Her back arches up from a sloughed skin of tight coils. Her cobra hood, with the distinctive “eyes” at the back, is framed in stripes of blue and, showing her true colours, tarnished gold: beware those serpent eyes above the Marilyn lips: the wide outstretched wings are ready to embrace – or engulf.