More than a thousand people will have participated in the art installation, `Prayers in the Wind, Private ritual, Public art' by the end of this month. White prayer flags - more than a thousand of them - will then be suspended on ropes filling half the space in the front portico of City Hall.

"The installation is my concept but I am inviting the general public to participate in the creation of this work," says artist Kendra Ezekiel.

"It will be in a public space and it will be created by the people, and community, of Bermuda." Other co-creators are the Bermuda National Gallery and the Corporation of Hamilton.

"One of the words I want to emphasise with this project is ritual, as being a part of our daily and cultural lives, and the relationship it has with art throughout history," says Ms Ezekiel. While travelling in Asia to study paper making she became fascinated by how paper making is part of the ritual life of villages.

"I became very interested in the connection between art and ritual," she says. "I had seen Tibetan prayer flags and the idea that they are left out in the wind appealed to me, and my interest in connecting daily rituals in life; like my own prayer."

She felt challenged to propose the prayer flag installation for the National Gallery's winter 2002 exhibition; `Art: New Genres, New Directions'. This exhibition was inspired by the Bermuda Festival's production of Yasmin Reza's play `ART'. Ms Ezekiel had seen the play a couple of years before and was intrigued by the question, `What is art?'

"I wanted to propose that prayer is an art form," she says, "and I wanted to broaden the audience by creating an installation outside of the gallery space, with public participation and community support."

Ms Ezekiel has already assisted more than five hundred school children to write prayers on ten-inch square white, cotton flags. Gibbons Company gave a discount on the fabric, Gorham's donated the rope and the pens were specially ordered through Bermuda Blue Printing, which covered the shipping costs.

It all started, however, with proposals and finding funding and a committee. For Ms Ezekiel, who is used to creating her art alone, it became a huge administrative project. Working within the National Gallery structure provided many opportunities for people to change how they usually work. She says everyone has been very supportive and it has been a learning experience for all. And that this project, "does involve a letting go of one's ego, with so many people involved, by accepting help and ideas from others".

One public participation day has already been held with two more to come. Maria Mesik was one of the volunteers who cut flags from bolts of fabric.

She says, "I have an art background and I know how difficult it can be to get volunteers. I'm here as an ex-pat to some extent. It's important to me to make a contribution to the Island."

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