CATHEDRAL officials are preparing to unveil a £100,000 "breathing" piece of art just days after other sculptures were revealed to people in Blackburn.

The circular sculpture, eight metres in diameter, is being kept under tight wraps until Monday, when a scale model of it will be revealed.

Blackburn with Darwen Council has had a mixed reaction to its plans to put five abstract sculptures on Church Street when it is pedestrianised later this year.

A spokesman for the Blackburn Diocese said the Cathedral sculpture would be exciting.

He said: "The intention is it will be hydraulically operated and will appear to move slightly, almost you could say it will pulse or breathe.

"It will also be lit by fibre optics and the colour will seem to change at night. It's going to be very spectacular."

The work is based on the final book of the Bible, Revelations, which describes the River of Life.

The spokesman said the sculpture would be abstract so people would be able to read their own interpretations into it.

He said: "It is intended to be a statement of Christian faith to people of many faiths and to people of no faith at all.

"That is why it's abstract, so people can interpret faith through it in their own way."

The work is to be created by sculptor Mark Jalland, who was chosen after a presentation and interview by representatives of the Cathedral Chapter, Blackburn with Darwen Council and The Diocesan Advisory Committee.

The Very Rev David Frayne, Dean of Blackburn Cathedral, said the cash for the sculpture was coming from the Cathedral's partnership with the council's regeneration department, from European funding for the town centre's redevelopment.

He added: "Blackburn Cathedral already has some notable pieces of post-war religious art. There is the Crown of Thorns, the statue of Christ the Worker, and the Lantern Tower rebuilt last year.

"They are all to do with the Cathedral being a patron of the arts and it is part of the Cathedral's tradition that we should be in partnership with the borough."