In Medieval times, if you needed spiritual or physical help or healing, your body could be measured from head to toe with a length of string or thread, which would be sent to the nearest Cathedral or Abbey, where the monks would make a candle from it, light it and pray for your eternal soul. This practice was called Measuring to the Saint.
Artist Michelle Rumney is using this medieval practice as inspiration to create Southwark Cathedral's 2020 Lent Art Installation.
The artwork will also explore the idea of pilgrimage and the routes that connect us through the centuries.
Michelle is intending to measure hundreds of people at Southwark Cathedral – and to use the resulting human lengths of string in her installation, connecting them together to veil the high altar during the season of Lent in 2020.
Southwark Cathedral
London Bridge, SE1 9DA
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