Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes

Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes

A reflection upon environment

By Geneva Gámez

You probably recognize her work more than you do her name –yet she’s a world-renowned artist, honored as one of America’s outstanding women at the National Women’s Hall of Fame (at the same time as Hillary Clinton) and her installations include some of our country’s most famous monuments. She's the creator of the current Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art (downtown location). Much of her work consists of site-specific landscapes that integrate people with land and pronounce land as art.

As the brainchild and heart behind the Vietnam's Veteran Memorial in Washington and The Wave Field at the University of Michigan –to name a few, Maya Lin is no rookie at producing large scale minimalist pieces that impact the viewer immediately and although she usually works with outdoor landscapes, this is one of her few exhibits that is indoor, and that magically maintains this close relationship between land and people.

The exhibition consists of three large-scale installations, her 2 x 4 Landscape, which consists of over 50,000 2 x 4 boards standing on end; Blue Lake Pass, consisting of 20 cubes made from particle board that map a section of Colorado landscape; and Waterline, made of black aluminum tubing, and maps an underwater mountain.



Lin’s installations are a series of reflections on landscape--some are specific geological masses, others are abstractions that remind us of landmasses and water forms. While not specifically about our regional landscape, Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes invite observations about the world around us, making visitors more aware of our own rivers, mountains, and immediate natural environment.

The installations offer a strong sense of awareness to landscape and the use of architectural space through their size and materials. Senior Curator for MCASD, Dr. Stephanie Hanor, said in this particular exhibit, Lin uses common building materials to create large-scale topographical maps that are immersive in their size. She described the pieces as “unusual in how the visitor interacts with the pieces--you can walk through and under some of the works. There is an immediacy and an accessibility to the works--the form and materials are recognizable, but the scale and experience of the pieces are unique and magical.”

So when you visit the Museum of Contemporary Art and see that mountain landscape built from an endless count of small plywood pieces taking up the largest room at the museum along with a series of carved particle board blocks indistinctively unavoidable as you enter, and an underwater mountain with a tangled design hanging from the room to the right –you’ll know that’s Maya Lin.

The exhibition is open to the public until June 30, 2008. www.mcasd.org