The talents of Maya Lin in the field of visual arts and the built environment know no boundaries. Early on in her career, she was already able to break down the stereotypes of how architectural public spaces should be. To date, Maya Lin continues to explore different aspects of visual representation through design, architecture, sculpture, crafts and design philosophy.
Maya Lin was born on October 5, 1959, in Athens, Ohio to Chinese migrant parents. Artistry, creative and deep thinking runs in the family. Her father worked with ceramics and was also a former dean of the Fine Arts department of Ohio University. Her mother was a poet and taught literature in the same university. Maya was also the niece of Lin Huiyin, who was claimed to be the first female architect in China. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree and Master of Architecture degree from Yale University. She was also among the youngest to receive an honorary doctorate degree in Fine Arts from Yale. Aside from that, Maya also has an honorary doctorate degree from Harvard University.
In 1981, Maya astounded and surprised the world of architecture when she won the competition to design the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Only 21-years old at that time and an undergraduate architecture student at Yale, Maya defeated more than 1440 submissions. Her design paid homage to the unsung American heroes of the Vietnam War.
The design featured a granite V-shaped wall cut on the earth, symbolizing the deep loss among those who participated in the war. It also aimed to signify the slow but continuous healing process. On the stone wall were the engraved names of the 57,661 fallen soldiers. Her design challenged the perception of how public monuments should be created. It was very non-traditional and non-conventional that it created a lot of controversy after her win. Add to that was the fact that the winner of the competition lacked professional experience and is a woman of Asian ethnicity. Maya received a lot of harassment and led her to believe she would not have won if it had not been a “blind” competition. After discussing with the United States Congress and a compromise on her design, Maya’s concept was finally implemented. The memorial was unveiled on November 13, 1982. To date, the site has continued to be a significant pilgrimage site for those who served the war and the family and friends of casualties of the Vietnam war.
Maya describes herself a designer than an architect. It is always her goal to represent the future functions of the space as well as its meaning to people. She focuses on the emotions that space should evoke and how it affects the user. Her body of work reflects her deep reverence towards the natural environment. She has always been interested in the natural landscape, which led to inspiring works influenced by topography, geology, and other aspects of contemporary interpretations of the word “landscape.”
Maya went on to establish her own studio in New York, the Maya Lin Studio. After the famed Vietnam Veterans Memorial, she worked on the design of the Civil Rights Memorial in Alabama in 1989. In 1993, her design for the land sculpture of Groundswell at the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus was influenced by her study of the Zen gardens and the Native American earth-mounds. This site-specific work was created with the use of 43 tons of recycled glass. New York City’s Penn station was also touched by Maya’s artistry when she created Eclipsed Time in 1994. Inspired by the occurrence of a solar eclipse, this ceiling installation made of steel, aluminum disc and glass disc, moves back and forth to reflect the natural passing of the day. In 1995, she created a land sculpture called the Wave Field at the University of Michigan. By studying a series of satellite and aerial photographs, topographic map and exploring the ideas of fluid dynamics, she was able to turn a ten thousand square foot of grassland into a masterpiece.
Other architectural works include the Langston Hughes Library for the Children’s Defense Fund in 1999, the Museum of African Art in 1993, the Aveda Headquarters in 2002, as well as private residences. In 2001, she completed her work titled “Ecliptic” a 3.5-acre park in downtown Grand Rapids. In 2007, created an installation at the Indianapolis Museum of Art entitled “Above and Below.”
Her first art sculpture titled “Silver River” completed in 2009 is one of the main backdrops of the Aria Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. Her most recent projects include an installation in the Bicentennial Park in Athens, Ohio, the Riggio-Lynch Chapel, the Arts Plaza in Irvine, California, and “A Fold in the Field”, a 30,000-square meter earth art in New Zealand. She was also the artist and architect of a long-running series of outdoor installations in Washington and Oregon entitled “Confluence.” Maya has also exhibited her works in and out of the country through the Gagosian and Pace Gallery. In 1993, she held her first exhibit titled “Maya Lin: Public/Private.” After that, other exhibits followed, including “Maya Lin” in the American Academy of Rome, “Topologies” at the Southeaster Center for Contemporary and five more other museums in the country, and “Illusions of Eden: Visions of the American Heartland” along with four artists.
Aside from winning the Vietnam Veteran Memorial competition, Maya has received numerous prestigious awards including the Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Rome Prize, Finn Juhl Prize, National Medal of Arts and the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize. She was also elected Alumni Fellow at Yale in 2002, to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2005. Maya also sat as a jury during the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition.
Apart from art, sculpture, and structure, Maya has also published a book about the relationship between man and the environment in “Boundaries.” Currently, she is working on writing her final publication through a web project titled “What is Missing?” The life, ideologies, and works of Maya Lin have been documented in the Academy Award-winning documentary titled “Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision” in 1994.
