Platform: Maya Lin
July 4–October 13, 2014
Parrish Art Museum
279 Montauk Highway
Water Mill, NY 11976
T +1 631 283 2118
In the third iteration of its Platform series, the Parrish Art Museum presents artist Maya Lin, whose ecologically inspired works exist at the intersection of art, architecture, and environmental science. Platform: Maya Lin opens July 4 and continues through October 13.
Of primary concern to artist Maya Lin is the exploration of how we experience and influence the landscape. A passionate advocate for the environment, her most recent work brings to light the effects of climate change and the interconnectedness of all regions of the planet. By revealing aspects of the natural world that are normally invisible to us—the topography of the globe from ocean floor to mountain top, the evolving shape of coastlines and waterways—the artist highlights the need to consider how human activities impact the planet as a whole.
Lin invests years in her research, gathering data about the Earth via scientific mapping tools like sonar resonance scans and aerial and satellite imaging devices. She translates these technological views into expressive, human-scale sculptures, installations, and wall reliefs. Her complex investigation is expressed with a simplicity of means: each work in Platform: Maya Lin is composed of a single material: straight pins, marble, or recycled silver.
Pin River – Sandy depicts the boundaries of Hurricane Sandy’s flood plain. Tens of thousands of stainless steel straight pins cast shadows that imply aerial contour maps and help us envision how changing climate conditions affect the intersection of water and land.
The five marble sculptures included in the exhibition also find their compositional foundation in the world of science. Arctic Circle, Equator, and Latitude New York City are nested in three concentric circles in relationship to their geographic coordinates. The artist presents the surface topographies (mountain ranges, valleys, and oceans) of these latitudes but turns the outer layer of the planet upward making it viewable on a contiguous plain. Likewise, 74° West Meridian and 106° East Meridian visualize the longitudinal connection between seemingly far apart locations on the planet from the North to South Poles.
Accabonac Harbor, Georgica Pond, and Mecox Bay, depict landmark bodies of water on the East End of Long Island. By using recycled cast silver, Lin captures the reflective, precious, and jewel-like quality of water. Through works of extraordinary beauty, the artist asks us to envision waterways as the irreplaceable circulatory system of the planet and consider how our actions can destabilize this fragile balance.
Organized by Curator of Special Projects Andrea Grover, Platform is the Parrish Museum’s ongoing series of artist-driven projects that embrace experimentation and unconventional approaches to exhibition and programming, exploring artmaking as a way of understanding the world and creating new information about how we live in it.
Platform: Maya Lin is made possible, in part, by the generous support of the Joseph and Sylvia Slifka Foundation, Pace Gallery, New York, Linda Hackett/CAL Foundation, Debra and Leon Black, and the Andrew Sabin Family Foundation. Hampton Jitney is the Official Transportation Sponsor and an Official Media Sponsor of the Parrish Art Museum.
