Bernini, a great sculptor of the Italian Renaissance, carved his Ecstasy of St. Teresa as a masterful depiction of a woman in orgasm. Yet he would never have admitted that sex was his subject. Dominating Rome’s Cornaro Chapel the sculpture is said to represent a sacred moment, the instant the spirit enters the flesh. For 350 years, however, people have been writing about its obvious eroticism.
What does this have to do with Sophia Narrett? The Ecstasy of St. Teresa is a vivid example of the general impulse of art and pop culture that she is questioning. People are always using non erotic episodes from life to create veiled references to sex. Narrett turns this idea inside out. Her embroidered art often shows explicit sexual acts as a way to contemplate the not necessarily steamy parts of life.
