P R O F I L E | M AYA L I N
With work that embraces both senses and
surrounds, Maya Lin has reshaped conventional
notions of contemporar y art and architecture.
W R I T T E N B Y J E N N T H O R N T O N
V i s u a l i z i n g
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esigner Maya Lin is of a different nature. At just 21 years old,
while still a Yale undergrad, she entered the winning design
for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC,
one of 27,000 submissions. Lin's spare concept—its polished black
granite, register of names and horizontal orientation—intuited a very
different public memorial, one that veered dramatically from the usual
visual rhetoric, and was immediately controversial. Decades later, the
memorial is an American treasure and Lin, no longer the disruptor,
is perceived much like her groundbreaking design—distinctly and
significantly visioned.
A vision like Lin's is as remarkably rare as it is prolifically
applied; both artist and architect, her range of work pendulates
from memorials, cultural centers, and other buildings to
sculpture and large-scale environmental installations. Her
projects reference a variety of geologic phenomena. Among
these are site-specific earth works, including her well-regarded
wave fields—undulations of grassy terrain in unexpected
settings. ese sculptural mounds of earth express Lin's
larger reverence for land and landscapes, and are a form of
environmental activism. A native of rural Ohio, Lin grew up
when Rachel Carson released her environmental treatise Silent
Spring and in an interview with Bill Moyers Lin described her
work as "about appreciating and being respectful of nature."
is includes her architecture, both private and public
projects, convergences of Eastern and Western worlds, of
which her additions to the Children's Defense Fund's Alex
Haley Farm in Tennessee are an exquisite example. Lin
graced these 157-acre grounds with a modern vernacular via
the Riggio-Lynch Interfaith Chapel, which she designed as
a place of cultural solidarity and sanctuary after the events
of Sept. 11, 2001. Shaped like an ark, it soars precisely for
th e
E N V I R O N M E N T
PHOTOGRAPHS:
(CLOCKWISE
FROM
TOP)
COURTESY
OF
THE
CHILDREN'S
DEFENSE
FUND,
SCOTT
SODERBERG/MICHIGAN
PHOTOGRAPHY,
MIKE
COHEA/BROWN
UNIVERSITY,
AND
SOUTHERN
POVERTY
LAW
CENTER
