THE eyes watch you from every corner – from a painted canvas hung against the pink sandstone wall, from the chiselled surface of a block of granite or from your own reflection in a mirrored box.

“Do not be frightened,” says artist Ludmila Pawlowska, who has brought her roughly 180 works of art to Liverpool Cathedral.

“They are here to watch over you.”

Her exhibition, Icons in Transformation, will be stopping in the city until the middle of next month when it sets off again on a tour of international places of worship that has so far lasted 10 years.

Bringing it to Liverpool is a bit of a coup for the Cathedral, as this is its only showing in the North-West.

“Icons in Transformation is an awe-inspiring work, and Liverpool Cathedral will be one of the most impressive settings for it yet,” says Canon Anthony Hawley. “We are delighted to be able to show so much of Ludmila’s challenging and inspiring work.”

The show includes a series of icons taken from Danilov and Vassilevsky monasteries, both in Russia, where Pawlowska was born. Positioned in the centre of the Well, a large space near the main Cathedral entrance, they are surrounded by her own works, which have evolved from the originals.

“When my mother suddenly died 15 years ago it was a big shock to me and it took me many years to get through the sorrow,” she says. “Icons showed me the right way, both emotionally and for my art.”