Maya Lin: Disappearing Bodies of Water | "Exclusive" | Art21

[MAYA LIN: DISAPPEARING BODIES OF WATER]

I was going to become a field zoologist

and I took a sidetrack into art and architecture.

I was brought up in the 60s--child of the 60s--

so, whether I was petitioning to boycott Japan for the whaling industry,

or petitioning to ban steel traps,

I was out in the parking lot in Athens, Ohio,

sort of being a bit of an activist.

The discussion was out of how much damage

we were doing as a species to the rest of the planet.

It's really personal, and I love the environment.

I love the world around us.

"Red Sea" (2006)

In a previous show, I had done these bodies of water--

like the Caspian, the Red Sea, and the Black Sea.

So, I'm going to be cutting into stone, this time,

these disappearing bodies of water.

What we've got today of the Arctic Ice Shelf

versus what it was like in 1980.

This is Lake Chad which, again,

all that's left of Lake Chad is this,

and so at this point, we start with drawings,

we end up putting it into the computer,

and it will all be cut in stone.

It's sort of in between mechanized and then hand worn--

or worn out--so it gets to be a little bit softer on the edges.

I love the smaller-scale works because

I can make them here with my team.

They're both artists and architects working for me,

but the architectural assistants, they're the only ones

that can take this data from the map makers,

convert it, and then send it to the printers.

This is Nick Croft, by the way.

Can you just walk them through some of the analysis

and studies that have to go on?

[Nick Croft, Studio Assistant]

[CROFT] Well, a lot of it is finding data of geographical places

or locations in the world.

So, a lot of the time, we'll look to the Internet.

We'll take it all and we'll try to make a three-dimensional surface

in the computer program

and then make mock ups at various scales,

or do different studies of the terrain and its surface quality.

[LIN] Because so much of what I do ends up being

through the computer to analyze the data and information.

The thing I'm always wary of is,

"Oh, what's the difference between whether it's in an art museum

versus a science museum?"

And that's where it's tricky.

It's not really a representation--it is its own thing.

I'm as much interested in the form making that I'm doing,

as well as getting you to think about

what we're doing to the world around us.