Pray by Numbers

A grid of 962 numbered squares is etched into a white panel just over 9’ tall and 6’ wide in the chapel.  Before it on a small desk is a stack of 962 3x3” cards, each front a single color, and printed with a unique letter and number combination corresponding to one of the squares of the grid.  With a pen provided, visitors handwrite a prayer on the back of a card and then affix it to the correspondingly numbered square on the panel.  Eventually, when each of the cards has been filled with a prayer and hung on the panel, a pixelated iconic image of Jesus Christ, will appear, made of the amalgamated prayers of the visitors to the chapel.

The metaphor is a useful and beautiful one to Christians: that Christ appears in the collective prayers of those worshipping, appearing as part and parcel of the many voices that ask His help.  He is there in every small still voice, even if one cannot discern the overall pattern. And He is there to be seen when all those voices are added together but their individual words are lost in the thrum. 

This sculptural form can be adapted to suit the prayer needs of congregations of many different religions by using an image, graphic and or text that meets their needs, without losing its central metaphor, and conceptual impact,