The upcom­ing art instal­la­tion at the Rankin Center Art Gallery promises to daz­zle stu­dents, fac­ulty, and the Ferris com­mu­nity into a maze of thought and wonder.

The “Labyrinth” exhibit is a col­lec­tion of blown glass cre­ated by a col­lab­o­ra­tive team of artists that include Matthew McCormack and Jenn Figg.

Carrie Weis, Ranking Art Gallery direc­tor, said, “Blown glass is an old art form that com­bines intense heat with molten glass and tools to cre­ate a myr­iad of shapes and forms.”

The theme of the exhibit revolves around the con­cept of a maze or labyrinth.

“The artists will install a sys­tem of fenc­ing to cre­ate a labyrinth within the space and will enhance it with glass, mir­rors and pro­jec­tion,” said Weis.

Weis pro­vided fur­ther expla­na­tion of the instal­la­tion in a state­ment she pre­pared for the gallery newslet­ter that said, “Sometimes a gallery expe­ri­ence isn’t about look­ing at two-dimensional work hang­ing on walls. Sometimes it’s about walk­ing into another world that has been con­cep­tu­al­ized through artis­tic vision and installed with the inten­tion of trans­form­ing an envi­ron­ment into a land of won­der. The exhi­bi­tion ‘Labyrinth’ is exactly that.”

Weis believes that McCormack and Figg were able to cre­ate an exhibit that will be able to offer the Ferris com­mu­nity a very unique visual experience.

McCormack is an Ohio native and Figg is from California. The pair are enthu­si­as­tic about tak­ing a pub­lic space and mak­ing it into some­thing com­pletely new and dif­fer­ent that the pub­lic can enjoy. The two artists were recently invited to show­case their blown glass and other sculp­tural work in the National Museum of Glass in Eskisehir, Turkey.

The instal­la­tion will be avail­able for view­ing begin­ning Oct. 18 and will leave the gallery on Nov. 24. There will be a lec­ture by Figg and McCormack on their col­lec­tion on Oct. 19 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the Rankin Art Gallery. After the lec­ture, the artists will hold a recep­tion until 2 p.m.

“I invite you to our gallery, I invite you to sus­pend dis­be­lief and engage in some­thing new and unex­pected,” said Weis in her gallery newslet­ter. “I invite you to take a few moments to reflect upon your­self as well as some­thing new and won­der­ous. Leave the world of time clocks and sched­ules behind and join us in won­der­land.” n