RIOS (Random Information Organization System)

RIOS is located in the P2 level elevator lobby of the Central Library’s parking garage.  It is a wall relief made from cast glass, representing numerous shelves of books.  To Francis, a library is the original “random information organization system.”  From afar, the view is of infinite shelves of books stretching to eternity, starting in the garage and seemingly passing through a glass wall into the elevator lobby area.  Upon closer inspection, the books are shown to be stacked idiosyncratically and they take on individual characteristics, almost like people.  Titles are visible on some of them–such as Indianapolis native Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.’s Slaughter-house Five–and the viewer is left wondering about the connections between them.

Ed Francis received his B.S. in Fine and Applied Arts at Southern Connecticut State University and his M.F.A. in glass from Kent State University. He participated in the Creative Glass Center of America Fellowship Program and was a teaching assistant at Pilchuck and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. In 1995 he started the glass program at the Indianapolis Art Center, and soon after founded Off Center Glass, a specialty glass production business. He has worked in studios across the country and taught at Alfred University, the Rochester Institute of Technology, and the Indianapolis Art Center. Ed is a professor of art and head of glass studies at Tidewater Community College’s Visual Arts Center in Portsmouth, Virginia.