A new show in Pittsburgh reveals artist and architect Maya Lin’s transformation of rivers and mountains into stunning sculptural forms.
On until May 13, Maya Lin presents 21 sculptures and drawings that interpret Lin’s perspectives of otherwise uninspiring forms, including inland rivers and mountainous regions.
Where 20 massive blocks of contoured particleboard represent a trail in the Rocky Mountain range, a cast of silver traces the Colorado River. Meanwhile, steel wire has been shaped into a landscape pinched with peaks and hollowed out with imaginary valleys and 18 solid pancake forms of blown glass mimick droplets of dew.
Lin’s affinity for the environment and its forms has long been a part of her career. In 2006 she presented a collection of models for the Bodies of Water series, where she explored international waters including the Caspian Sea. In 2009, she resurfaced with the Wavefield at Storm King Art Center. There, mounds of gravel, soil and grass that each stretched over 91 metres long and reach heights of up to 4.5 metres.
Lin is best known for the chevron-shaped Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in Washington, D.C., a commission she received after winning the design competition in 1981 as a student at Yale. The memorial, much like these installations, absorbs the visitor, focussing on the landscape where the work is located, not just the work.
