In 1981, at 21 and still an undergraduate student, Lin won a public design competition to design the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, to be built on the National Mall in Washington D.C. Vietnam Veterans Memorial Maya Lin's winning submission for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial design competitionįurther information: Vietnam Veterans Memorial In addition to her other activities as an environmentalist, Lin has served on the Natural Resources Defense Council board of trustees. She has explored these issues in her recent memorial, called What Is Missing?Īccording to one commentator, Lin constructs her works to have a minimal effect on the environment by utilizing recycled and sustainable materials, by minimizing carbon emissions, and by attempting to avoid damaging the landscapes/ecosystems where she works. Lin's focus on this relationship highlights the impact humanity has on the environment, and draws attention to issues such as global warming, endangered bodies of water, and animal extinction/endangerment. All of my work is about slipping things in, inserting an order or a structuring, yet making an interface so that in the end, rather than a hierarchy, there is a balance and tension between the man-made and the natural."Īccording to the scholar Susette Min, Lin's work uncovers "hidden histories" to bring attention to landscapes and environments that would otherwise be inaccessible to viewers and "deploys the concept to discuss the inextricable relationship between nature and the built environment". Even the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is an earthwork. Noting that much of her later work has focused on the relationship people have with their environment, as expressed in her earthworks, sculptures, and installations, Lin said, "I'm very much a product of the growing awareness about ecology and the environmental movement.I am very drawn to landscape, and my work is about finding a balance in the landscape, respecting nature not trying to dominate it. She attributes her interest in the environment to her upbringing in rural Ohio: the nearby Hopewell and Adena Indian burial mounds inspired her from an early age. Environmental concerns Īccording to Lin, she has been concerned with environmental issues since she was very young, and dedicated much of her time at Yale University to environmental activism. She graduated in 1977 from Athens High School in The Plains, Ohio, after which she attended Yale University where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1981 and a Master of Architecture in 1986. While still in high school she took courses at Ohio University where she learned to cast bronze in the school's foundry. Lin has said that she did not have many friends when growing up, stayed home a lot, loved to study, and loved school. Īccording to Lin, she "didn't even realize" she was ethnically Chinese until later in life, and that only in her 30s did she acquire an interest in her cultural background. Lin Chang-min, a Hanlin of Qing dynasty and the emperor's teacher, fathered Lin Huiyin with his wife, while Maya Lin's father Henry Huan Lin was Lin Chang-Min’s illegitimate son with his concubine. Lin Juemin and Lin Yin Ming, both of whom were among the 72 martyrs of the Second Guangzhou uprising, were cousins of her grandfather. She is the "half" niece of Lin Huiyin, who was an American-educated artist and poet, and said to have been the first female architect in modern China. Her mother, Julia Chang Lin, born in Shanghai, is a poet and a former professor of literature at Ohio University. Her father, Henry Huan Lin, born in Fuzhou, Fujian, was a ceramist and dean of the Ohio University College of Fine Arts. Her parents emigrated from China to the United States, her father in 1948 and her mother in 1949, and settled in Ohio before Lin was born. According to Lin, she draws inspiration from the architecture of nature but believes that nothing she creates can match its beauty. Although best known for historical memorials, she is also known for environmentally themed works, which often address environmental decline. Lin has designed numerous memorials, public and private buildings, landscapes, and sculptures. In 1981, while an undergraduate at Yale University, she achieved national recognition when she won a national design competition for the planned Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Maya Ying Lin (born October 5, 1959) is an American designer and sculptor.
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