THOUSANDS of people are expected to take the opportunity to see a major new sculpture exhibition at Salisbury Cathedral.

Messenger of the Spirit, by Helaine Blumenfeld, opens today and runs for five months. It brings together 20 pieces created by one of Britain’s leading contemporary sculptors and includes four - Espirit 2013, Mysteries, The Space Within and Flight – created especially for the exhibition.

The majority, made from marble and bronze, are located in the Cathedral but six monumental works are outside in the surrounding close.

Curator and visual arts adviser for the cathedral, Jacquiline Creswell, said it took a week to install, with people working on it from 7am to 7pm. “This has been the biggest exhibition I have worked on,” she said. “And I’ve been here four years.

“In setting it up we have had a lot of interaction with the public and they have really grasped the concept.

“The pieces have such a voice here in the cathedral, a resonance that is wonderful.”

Sarah Mullally, canon treasurer and chairman of the cathedral’s exhibition committee, said the spirituality of the pieces and that of the cathedral work together to create a sense of the transcendence.

“As I watched the exhibition being installed over the last few days the wonderful sculptures found life as the light and space began to touch the folds, crevasses and lines of the pieces.

“Within the narrative of Christian scripture angels appear when the human mind struggles to comprehend. Through her sculptures Helaine seeks to communicate from that place when words fail through the visual, imaginative and tactile, and at an emotional level.”

Blumenfeld, who was born in New York and who now lives in Cambridge and Tuscany, and whose career spans more than four decades, said she felt “uniquely inspired” when an exhibition at the cathedral was suggested to her three years ago.

“When people come into the context of Salisbury Cathedral, they enter the grounds prepared for a spiritual experience,” she said.

“They leave their everyday thoughts outside and are open to receiving the impact of the experience they may have there; not necessarily a ‘religious’ experience but rather one of being open to the notion that art is a form of revelation, both for the artist who receives a ‘vision’ and for the viewer to whom it is transmitted. As the title suggests, art can be the bearer of this message.”

For more information visit salisburycathedral.org.uk or call 01722 555120.

Recommended viewing times are Monday to Saturday 9am to 5pm and Sunday noon to 4pm.