How to do that measuring to the saint thing yourself!
The Hanged Man Story
So, as you may know, I’ve done a lot of measuring with string, ribbons and thread over the past few years… It started with St Thomas Way and the story of the Hanged Man, and that evolved into the piece for Hereford Cathedral, The Map of Mundi.
Medieval Walls
And that, in turn, led to workshops and events where we’ve tried to measure enough people to get a length long enough to circle the medieval city walls of Southampton (in theory at least!).
Becket 2020
And also it has led to me attempting to measure 850 people at Southwark Cathedral for the Lent Art Installation in 2020. This will mark the 850 years since St Thomas Becket gave his last sermon at Southwark before setting off for the last time to his Cathedral in Canterbury.
It’s such a beautiful practice – to stand and face someone and make eye contact with them and then to measure them. So simple. So profound.
How to?
So, if you would like to do it yourself, then here’s a quick and easy video of how to. And thanks/gracias to my dear friend Kath for helping me measure over 450 people on the day we filmed this!
Once you have the measure of the other person in thread or string, you would, if this were 1180AD, send the length off to be made into a human height candle.
And then?
And I’m glad to say you still can!! The wonderful candlemakers at Charles Farris will make one for you, by hand, especially. Please contact me for details.
