Maya Lin: More Than Just a Monument

 

Maya Lin, Ecliptic, 2001, Concret 

Maya Lin: More Than Just a Monument

April 19, 2021, Anissa Quankep 

    Maya Lin participated in an Art21 documentary giving us a closer look into her work. Art21 allowed us to be part of the artistic process of Eliptical, an urban park in Grand Rapids Michigan. Eliptical was a made in 2001 and is a refurbished ice rink made from the park. Lin is best known for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, a project that she designed in her early twenties. Since then she has fallen into the category of a "monument artist," a label she dislikes. During her Art21 interview Identity, Lin states ". . .had I not done the Vietnam memorial. . .I would be called an artist five years sooner. But because I had done the Vietnam Memorial, it was like "Oh you make monuments," or whatever that means." Lin is a contemporary artist who practices art through architecture, making it harder for galleries and museums to showcase her work.




Robert Morris, Untitled (L-Beams), 1965, originally plywood,

 later versions made in fiberglass and stainless steel, 8 x 8 x 2′


In the 1960s and 1970s, minimalism, conceptual art, and land art opened the way for non-traditional artworks to be displayed inside art institutions. For example, Robert Morris’ L Beams (1965) combines aspects of industrial construction and architecture. Now that modernity has become industrial, specialization is allowed. Morris combines aspects of construction and architecture into his sculpture work as conceptual art. 

Lin expresses the states of matter and astronomy in the overall design of the ice rink. The whole rink is fully functional to the public year round. During the summer it serves as a venue to bring the community together, and during winter it is an ice rink. Her ice rink design satisfies both functionality and form, while engaging the audience physically further than Morris’ work. The park itself serves as a recreational site and the ice rink charts the stars and marks a moment in time. Ecliptic is specifically made to that community and to earth’s natural formations in that particular place. Maya Lin is more than just a monumentalist, she is a conceptual artist who expressed  her art in these ways.

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