Projects: Maze

The Maze: An Installation by Grant Taylor
August 29 – October 5, 2008

Click to Download the Maze Overview

The Suzanne H. Arnold Art Gallery is pleased to present The Maze, a contemporary multi-media installation piece by Grant Taylor, Australian artist and assistant professor of Art and Digital Communications at the College. Taylor’s latest work, which has been two years in development, will be the first exhibition of the academic year in the 2008-2009 season and will be the inaugural exhibition of the installation. The Maze explores the artist’s response to the distinctive fall season in rural Pennsylvania. Central to various celebrations and rituals that accompany the coming of the fall is the corn maze, which has a rich heritage in Lebanon, Lancaster, and surrounding counties. In the early 1990s, the first commercial “Amazing Maize Maze” in the United States was built in the cornfields adjacent to Lebanon Valley College. In addition to exploring seasonal phenomena, the installation examines particular church architectural structures, such as the towering white church steeples that are visible throughout the south-central Pennsylvania landscape. The artist employs the region’s unique church vernacular to evoke notions of liminality and spirituality. The viewer will experience a maze formation that consists of 65 clean, white steeples, each measuring more than seven feet high. Other familiar architectural forms are present, including an object filled with water. Using a variety of special lighting and audio effects the viewer is enveloped in a multisensory experience.

An opening reception will be held on Friday, August 29th from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Suzanne H. Arnold Gallery. Regular Gallery hours are Wednesday 5 – 8 p.m., Thursday and Friday, 1 to 4:30 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information or to arrange a private tour for your school or community group, please contact the Gallery at 717-867-6445 or visit our website at www.lvc.edu/gallery. All events are free and open to the public.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the Gallery Director, Scott Schweigert, and the artist will present a lecture entitled “Liminality and Reoccurrence: A Conversation Between Artist and Curator” on September 18 at 7:00 p.m. in Zimmerman Recital Hall.  The lecture is free and open to the public.