Dressed in brown corduroys and a white sweater zipped up the front, the tiny Chinese-American woman examining the installations at the Henry Art Gallery looks like one of the university's graduate students. But no, this delicate creature is Maya Lin, she of the mammoth ideas, the landscape-size sculptures and the enormous reputation. There she was last week putting the finishing touches on the overwhelming exhibition of her recent works which is now open to the public.
Among the approximately 40 pieces on display are sculptures, prints, sketches, audiovisual materials and three room-size installations. These three are the most awesome and irresistible.
The first, "Water Line," composed of a loose weave of painted aluminum tubing, represents the bottom of the ocean some 1,000 miles from Antarctica. There, one mountain of the mid-Atlantic ridge thrusts above sea level forming the remote Couvet Island. Because the Henry is a museum that goes down rather than up, visitors first see this installation from a balcony above. Standing at an imaginary sea level, they can look across to the protruding tip of the mountain and then down onto the land surface under the sea. That experience is complemented by descending one flight to walk underneath this floating artistic, but scientifically accurate, depiction of the land below the sea that none of us will ever see in real life.
"Blue Lake Pass" is another room-sized sculpture based on the natural world. In this one, Lin has reproduced in particleboard a mountainous terrain near her Colorado home. It's a three-dimensional topographic map. The sculpture has been segmented into giant blocks that have been pulled apart so the visitor has the sensation of walking through the mountain, experiencing its striations and strata along with its undulations
The "2 X 4 Landscape" entices the visitor to step right onto and up the room-sized hill that rises more than 10 feet toward the ceiling. It is made out of thousands of pieces of 2-by-4 lumber cut to form the uneven terrain. Here again Lin is dealing with the environment, taking the outdoors and moving it inside where we experience it in an unfamiliar fashion. It's a relatively small hill as hills go, but within the four walls of an exhibit hall it overwhelms one's senses.
After looking at and interacting with these two installations, visitors can walk up the back stairs in order to look down on both from the viewing windows. Walking on and through them is one sensation. Seeing them from above provides a totally different experience and should not be missed.
It's too bad the Henry doesn't have signs to encourage people to explore the somewhat hidden galleries and audiovisual presentation behind the big three installations before going up the stairs. They are really worthwhile, but easy to miss.
At the core of all of Lin's work is environmental awareness. She uses the most sophisticated tools of modern science and mathematics, including GPS, sonar, satellite imaging and topographic maps, to create artworks that provide unexpected views of the natural world. Like the landscape painters of the 19th century she brings a sense of wonder and a new vision to her audience. Where her predecessors were depicting new lands that few would actually see, she is depicting known landscapes in a fresh way.
On one wall is a 16-foot sculpture created from thousands of straight pins that have been arranged to depict the entire Columbia River. None of the lakes are shown. None of the adjoining lands are illustrated. But every dam put in place by humans seeking to tame the river to their purposes is clearly represented.
The Columbia holds a central position in this exhibition. One gallery is devoted to sketches, text, photographs and models of Lin's "Confluence Project," which is a series of seven permanent environmental art installations along the river and its tributaries. Each site is located at a point of contact between the Lewis and Clark expedition and the Native Americans who inhabited this land. All are on the Washington side of the river. The first, located at Cape Disappointment State Park in Ilwaco, will open in May. The others will take shape over the next three to five years.
These outdoor artworks draw together the world view of the native cultures with that of Lewis and Clark. Visitors will meander along low-lying boardwalks through a landscape that has been ecologically restored to resemble what it might have been in the early 19th century. Chinook prayers and excerpts from the diaries of Lewis and Clark provide an understanding of the changes that have taken place in 200 years. The experience has historical, social and artistic merit. It is also meant to build an awareness of the relationship between pre- and post-industrial societies and the natural world
Lin explores landscape through the lens of technology. Using the tools of science and mathematics, she translates technological understanding into art that speak to the soul and the mind. She has been called one of the most innovative artists working today. "Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes" at the Henry offers a great opportunity to see why.[[In-content Ad]]
