Maya Lin was born in Athen, Ohio in 1959, and studied architecture
and sculpture at the prestigious Yale University where she received her
Bachelor’s degree in 1986. While a
student, Lin submitted a minimalistic design into a national contest for the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial that was being built in Washington, DC. Though her design was quite controversial due
to the material and color it was picked as the winner! Since then, she has worked on monuments and
pieces placed in parks around the nation giving individuals a place to seek out
memorial within the landscape that surrounds.
The piece for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial portrays this landscape
use around it, as you can see when you view the piece from above. The landscape is level to the top of the
wall, which forces the observer to step down into the piece. To me this portrays a metaphoric meaning of
the piece, aligning it with a low time for our country; sullen, depressing, and
horrific. But Lin uses the beauty of the
material to pair it with the beauty of the landscape, beauty that was present in
the souls of the lives that were lost. Lin’s
piece for the Vietnam Veterans memorial is quite large scale, not only
horizontally but also vertically. The
piece is comprised of a long, rectilinear gabbro wall that consists of two 246
ft. 9 in. sections, and stands at 10.1 ft. at its highest peak, tapering down
to 8 in. at the ends. The geometric shape
is constructed of a black, reflective stone which shows the viewer their
reflection as they view the names of the servicemen who lost their lives. I would imagine that standing in front of the
piece would bring a cloud of sorrow, not only from what the names etched into
the stone represent, but also due to the amount of names etched that would create
a wall so vast in size. Each name
represents someone that lost their life in the war, which would become more
ominous to the viewer as you walk through passing name after name. This piece represents a sorrowful day in our nation’s
history, and the way Lin is able to connect the viewer to the sorrow that
happened so long ago makes this memorial powerful while giving beauty to the
lives etched in stone.
Vietnam Veterans Memorial, 1982
Stone
493 ft. 6 in. x 10.1 ft. (highest peak)
Washington, DC
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