Maya Lin – an extraordinary artist. Most well known for her design of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C., she has continued to explore the concept of the earth and the shape of its land in her exhibition, Systematic Landscapes, at the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
Systematic Landscapes is based around three installation pieces that explore the topographic shape of the land and bodies of water. Each of these installations invites the viewer to experience these shapes in ways not found in nature – walking around, underneath and through the pieces. The piece I feel most conveys the concept of an installation was Blue Lake Pass, a wooden replica of a Colorado mountain range split into sections that allow the viewer to pass around and through them. This piece essentially allows the viewer to become a part of the work – the viewer can go between the pieces. Walking between the sections forces the viewer to become aware of their body in the space – the empty area between the sections is no more than two feet wide. There is a strong wood smell present in this piece, reminding the viewer that this is not a rocky mountain range but in fact pieces of particle board cut into shapes and pushed together and apart to create the topographical image of a mountain sliced up. This separation of pieces encourages the viewer to, in their mind, push the pieces back together to create a congruent image of what the mountain would really look like. It also encourages the viewer to imagine what’s really below the surface of the mountain – obviously it isn’t solid wood, so what is it?
Maya Lin is a master in her work, actively engaging the viewer to view her work in pieces and as a whole from many different angles. She makes the viewer think.
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