Most well known for designing the Vietnam Memorial, Maya Lin has an astounding body of work. She has created large environmental landscapes that are site specific. In the work I am showing here, she has made the decision to bring those landscapes inside. Her goal is for the viewer to experience the natural forms of the world in an architectural space.
She uses systems of reading landscapes, ways that scientists and computers would read the landscape, as topographical drawings to be translated into sculptural forms. Her desire is to bring the familiar outside landscape indoors without changing the her voice as an artist.
In the photo above, she uses cut particle board to create three forms of geological phenomena.
In 2x4 Landscape, Maya Lin has used over 50,000 cut 2x4s to create this gently rolling hill or to some, a wave, that rises to ten feet tall and covers 2400 square feet. Below is the Caspian Sea (carved of Baltic birch plywood) one of the most endangered bodies of water in the world.
Her systematic landscapes articulate the depth of her interests, her research, her understanding of culture and context and allow for a visual language that is unique and amazing.
These are just a few of the vast body of works of Maya Lin. You can find more about her on Art 21, Henry Art Gallery, Youtube and many more.
