A new opening to the skies has appeared in the ceiling of Portsmouth Cathedral.

Artist Andrea Stokes has created Puncture - a video installation that appears to be a window to the heavens above.

It's difficult to imagine the effect of Puncture. On the ceiling of Portsmouth Cathedral - directly above the seated congregation - a skylight has been projected complete with blue sky and drifting clouds.

The vision is then confused by the appearance of an artist leaning over the window - apparently outside looking in - who then gradually begins drawing a rising tower.

"I wanted to bring myself into it, doing something quite mundane to ground it to reality and to the physicality of the space", said Andrea Stokes - the artist.

"When I came and looked at the space I thought 'What an amazing place - how can I compete with it?' It's so grand and so full of meaning and so resonant", added Andrea.

Andrea works with Portsmouth based organisation Art Space

"So I thought that maybe I should try and take something away rather than try and add to it."

As the name of the exhibition - Puncture - suggests, the piece is about release - about releasing the spiritual and architectual tension present in the building.

"I felt like the air was charged with meaning", said Andrea. "Whether you're a religious person or you're not, I think it does have what I call a charge - there's something quite special about the place."

The Dean of Portsmouth Cathedral - The Very Reverend David Brindley - appreciates the importance of the ongoing relationship between art and religion.

"The church historically has always been associated with commissioning art and a lot of this art has been at the cutting edge of artistic practice", he said.

"This piece of art is drawing the eye upwards and I think that it's doing that not just in a physical way but also drawing the imagination upwards.

"I think that's part of the purpose of a building like this - that as your eye goes upwards you begin to consider something about God", he added.

Despite it's position within the cathedral Puncture isn't obviously a religious piece of art - it's noticeably free of religious symbols or characters.

"The art doesn't have to have a specifically religiously content. As people confront art and are confronted by it - they are stretched - they are transformed - something happens to them.

"When that stretching and transformation happens they start to look afresh at themselves and therefore look afresh at God.

"When people are using and stretching their imaginations they are implicitly coming closer to God", added David.