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Inside Maya Lin’s Art and Architecture | Art21

  • 1:09 - 1:14
    I think art is wonderful because it's
    everything you've ever known,
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    and everything you've ever done somehow
    percolating up,
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    working with ideas that you might want to
    explore.
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    And then you can just wake up one morning
    and know what you want to do.
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    This is a very unusual art project.
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    I got a phone call out of the blue.
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    It was from an art consultant in the city,
    wonderful woman.
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    And she said, "Congratulations, you've
    been selected to make an art work for the
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    Frey Foundation of the city of Grand
    Rapids." and I said, "Well, what's the
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    site?" And it was one little corner.
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    It was called the "Percent for Art Corner"
    of sort of a very tough park, or what
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    was left of a park. There was a skating
    rink that was in bad need of repair.
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    And I said, "I don't believe an art work,
    one singular object is going to help
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    resolve sort of the urban situation of
    what this park is and is not doing, but if
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    the Frey Foundation is at all interested
    in having me come in, having the art act
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    as a catalyst to completely rework this
    park, I would be extremely interested."
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    I think the idea of a skating rink
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    is something that just sort of piqued my
    fancy.
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    What I actually wanted to do was take an
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    idea of sculpture and grow it into a
    park.
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    I didn't realize I was going to have to
    work as an architect as well,
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    because the city then required two or
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    three buildings to be part of the site.
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    A bandstand, a restroom facility,
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    I'll have put in all the lighting.
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    Yeah, it's not...
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    I wonder if you're gonna notice that,
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    That might be a good North Star.
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    <v Assistant>okay.</v>
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    <v ->Right?</v>
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    And so then we either go deep, deep blue.
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    Yeah, that works fine for the North Star,
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    because it's off-blue.
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    <v ->Okay.</v>
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    <v ->I'm really curious what this
    looks like with ice on it.
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    We're soon gonna find out,
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    with ice.
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    I sort of called this one the three stages
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    of water: solid, liquid, and gas.
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    So the liquid is a water fountain
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    that's three feet about you.
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    A circle covered with water in it flows
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    off the front edge.
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    The mist or the gas fountain
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    is a ring of mist that'll come up,
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    and you could almost walk into the mist,
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    And of course, the ice is the ice skating
    rink.
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    The genesis started with water.
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    Grand Rapids actually took the rapids out
    the river there
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    for flooding reasons.
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    And I started to play with the idea
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    of bringing it back a little bit.
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    The starting of the rings, the terraced
    rings,
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    started as, if you took a drop of water
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    in the center of the pool, and let them
    come out,
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    and then it spun into an idea of as much
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    about astronomy and about the stars,
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    so it's almost like pulling the stars
    into a pool of water.
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    It's sort of a reflection of the night sky
    in the pool.
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    (group laughing and chattering)
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    <v ->All right, this is it.
    Now close your eyes.
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    <v ->Wow. This is not bad.</v>
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    (chattering)
    Just be careful, Sarah.
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    Wow.
    (gentle music)
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    It's a piece that marks a very set point
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    in time and connects it back to a set
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    occurence in nature.
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    (ice skater yells)
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    It's up and running. The skating rink's
    actually up first,
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    and I'll go back in to fine-tune the
    landscaping, the trees.
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    My sculptures deal with naturally
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    occurring phenomena,
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    and they are embedded and very closely
    alined with geology
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    and landscape and natural earth
    formations.
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    It's all about a play back and forth
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    between inside works and outside works,
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    all trying to capture the landscape.
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    This is a group of atlases.
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    I bought about ten old atlases.
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    And I started making these landscapes,
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    crates, in them.
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    So this one sort of has a double crater.
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    So you go past through the first crater,
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    and there's a little island and you open
    it to the island,
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    and I'll make it more complex island
    geography here,
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    which is what's going on.
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    So much of my artwork is very large-scale
    outdoor works that I like to retreat
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    into the studio and make a lot of the
    work myself.
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    And the trouble is the outdoor works and
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    the architecture tends to take up all my
    time,
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    so I find it very hard, as a struggle,
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    to be able to come back here and do this.
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    This is like the first work I've done in
    a little while.
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    It's terrible.
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    (cat meows)
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    We have gone through a period in art and
    architecture,
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    I think, modernity, industrialization,
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    which allowed for specialization.
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    There are very few architects who are
    also solidly, have a gallery.
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    Part of me is an artist.
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    The other part of me builds architecture.
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    I'm not at all wanting to have
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    a large practice.
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    I don't want to practice architecture.
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    I love building a few buildings.
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    So I have to be very careful what I
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    take on.
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    I've done some works that are extremely
    public and extremely well-known,
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    and I think had I not done the Vietnam
    Memorial and come out with the body of
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    work that since has come out, I would have
    been able to be called an artist
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    about five yers sooner.
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    But because I had done the Vietnam
    Memorial,
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    it was like, "Oh, you make monuments,"
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    whatever that means.
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    I mean, look at that one, the biggest one.
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    Dee-dee-dee-dee.
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    Dee-dee-dee.
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    I don't think I woke up one day and said,
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    "Oh, I'm going to be an artist on some
    days and an arch..."
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    It was more I couldn't choose between the
    two, nor did I
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    choose to blend them.
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    You might be able to do this better than
    me.
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    It's taken me a body of work to see how I
    am developing.
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    <v Acquaintance>I don't think so.</v>
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    <v ->No, it's solid, it's totally
    solid.
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    It's been on for an hour now.
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    It's kind of surreal.
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    I really want to make this piece.
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    I'm actually playing with
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    the idea of taking this idea and creating
    a work out of recycled rubber,
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    calling it "Playground."
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    It will be twice as big
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    as the untitled topographic landscape,
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    and kids can play on it.
Title:
Inside Maya Lin’s Art and Architecture | Art21
Description:

more » « less
Video Language:
English
Team:
Art21
Project:
"Art in the Twenty-First Century" broadcast series
Duration:
11:42
Lauren_Harrison16 edited English subtitles for Inside Maya Lin’s Art and Architecture | Art21 Dec 3, 2024, 4:25 AM

English subtitles

Incomplete

Revisions

  • Revision 1 Edited
    Lauren_Harrison16 Dec 3, 2024, 4:25 AM