Maya Lin's Wexner Artist Talk

I like to take from science and then somehow distill it,

edit it, read it, regurgitate it, and turn it into something

from an artist's point of view. . . .

~ Maya Lin

In the excellent video below, artist and architect Maya Lin talks about her career and her work, in particular her most recent memorials or "memory works", such as What Is Missing?, and her didactic films. She describes her fascination with water, which has led to creation of a series of wonderful large-scale earthworks she calls "wave fields" (these include the recent and huge A Fold in the Field at Gibbs Farm in New Zealand), her interest in environmental degradation and loss of species (see Lin's online work-in-progress Map of Memory), and how she uses her art to show us how we can make a difference to our planet. What she shows us during her talk, which ends with one of her films, is deeply sobering.

The talk took place in April of this year at the Wexner Center for the Arts, The Ohio State University, which was celebrating the restoration of Lin's site-specific sculpture Groundswell (1993), comprising more than 40 tons of tempered safety glass (of a kind no longer made). The piece, such a marvelous fit to the location, is the non-collecting institution's only permanent installation. Lin was awarded and fulfilled the Wexner Center Artist Residency in 1992-1993. Her Groundswell was dedicated formally in October 1993. 

Maya Lin: Artist's Talk from Wexner Center for the Arts on Vimeo.

Maya Lin at Art21

Maya Lin Profile at Academy of Achievement

"Artist, Architect & Memorial Designer", Makers Profile of Maya Lin (In this interview, Lin talks about her inspirations, interest in maps, perspective on environmental issues, and work in the disciplines of architecture and art.)

Allison Berry, "The Creative Mind: Q&A with Artist and Architect Maya Lin", Time, May 2, 2013

Carol Kino, "Once Inspired by a War, Now by the Land", The New York Times, November 7, 2008