TWO artists have created a thought-provoking new installation - with the help of 6,000 pieces of medieval pottery.

Mosaicist Emma Biggs and art critic Matthew Collings have intricately arranged the fragmented pieces to create a huge mosaic in York St Mary’s, a deconsecrated medieval church in the heart of York.

The installation is called Five Sisters, after the great 13th-century window in York Minster from which its takes its inspiration.

The thousands of sherds have come from archaeological digs across Yorkshire and are cared for by the York Museums Trust.

They are roughly the same age as the Five Sisters window in the Minster and a team of volunteers from the city have cleaned the varied pieces that make up the intricate and abstract mosaic.

"Artists are never the sole creators of their work, and Five Sisters asks you to look at the work of the hands that threw the pots, adhered the handles, applied the glaze and stacked the kiln," said the artists in a joint statement.

"But you are also seeing the work of the archaeologists who unearthed these ceramic fragments, volunteers who cleaned them, the Trust that housed them and the taxpayers who funded their preservation.

"This work is an accumulation of labour, values, aesthetics, skills and knowledge from the past, remade and re-examined."

The work will be on show until November, when the pottery will be returned to its original state. York St Mary’s is open 10am to 4pm and free to all.

For more information on the church, Five Sisters and past installations go to www.yorkstmarys.org.uk