MAYA LIN

From this body of work, ‘The Deglaciation of the Laurentide (2018)’ will be on view. The melting of the Laurentide Ice Shell, which once covered much of the North American continent, is responsible for many of the contemporary bodies of water from the Artic to the Great Lakes. The seeming abstraction charts the melting and change in the Laurentide ice shelf in a shimmering reflective aluminum reminiscent of ice itself. For Lin, the idea of experience, movement, and nature are integral to her work, heightening spatial perception and environmental awareness. Her approach to artmaking often finds its origins in science rather than art, demonstrated in her application of satellite technology and cartographic. 

Extending on her investigations of land use and natural bodies of water, Lin created the site-specific work ‘A River Is a Drawing’ organized with The Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York in 2018. In 2019, Lin’s exhibition ‘Flow’, organized by the Grand Rapids Art Museum, expanded the site-specificity of her water works to Western Michigan, including ‘The Traces Left Behind (From the Great Bear Lake to the Great Lakes) (2019)’, a sprawling relief made of recycled silver. 

Maya Lin critically engages with notions of site and place, exploring the development of systems to reflect on the environment, creating objects that invite contemplation—intellectual, sensorial, and physical—of the natural world. Lin’s creative inclinations were encouraged from a young age, and she spent much of her childhood in her father’s ceramics studio. She went on to study architecture and sculpture at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1981. She was trained as an artist and architect, and her sculptures, parks, monuments, and architectural projects are linked by her ideal of making a place for individuals within the landscape. She draws inspiration for her sculpture and architecture from culturally diverse sources, including Japanese gardens, Hopewell Indian earthen mounds, and works by American earthworks artists of the ‘60s and ‘70s. Lin was thrust into the spotlight after winning a nationwide design competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. (1982). Perhaps her most recognizable work, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial allows the names of those lost in combat to speak for themselves, connecting a tragedy that happened on foreign soil with the soil of America’s capital city, where it stands. Lin’s longstanding environmental advocacy and her fascination with maps led her to begin exploring water as a precious resource in 2007, charting birds-eye views of major bodies of water such as the Hudson, Thames, and Yangtze rivers. These wall works, drawings, and large-scale sculptures have been produced using materials including recycled silver, glass marbles, and custom-made stainless-steel pins. Through her extensive historical and ecological research, Lin’s investigations of bodies of water led her to create the multi-sited and expansive project ‘What Is Missing? (2009)’, her final—albeit ongoing—memorial, which serves to raise awareness of environmental degradation and the biodiversity crisis.