Maya Lin

most of my work balances between east and west actually between science and art between mathematics and art artistic uses little ravines in order to add at such an age I have the pleasure of being here today with Milan her combination of art and architecture have really resulted in some of the most beautiful and mesmerizing pieces she is the vision behind the Vietnam Memorial the civil rights memorial and the design of the Museum of Chinese in America welcome Maya thank you so great to have you here I need to be here so we are here in the Museum of the Chinese in America which you helped design how does it feel being in your space you know normally when you make it when you design a space it's always great to come in back and visit this one's a little bit more special because I'm actually on the board of Museum of Chinese America so I I started with the architecture but I'm now fully vested in being part of helping this institution grow so it's a little bit like coming home because at this point I come over here all the time and we're working on you know whether it's new developing new programming we're just really excited and we're so excited to have you here as chinese-american how does it feel contributing to a place that teaches the community about this great heritage I think it's a sense of pride I think it's a sense of coming to know maybe a little later on in life I grew up in the middle of the country in Ohio and we were the only Chinese family growing up there so I didn't I didn't have a community to be a part of in a way and I didn't quite feel like well I'm different but how do I fit in so I think MOCA represents a way where you can create a sense of community a sense of home where you can discuss issues about cultural identity and where we're all from I think one of the programs they did early on which resonates with who they are as where is home and even though it's a Museum of Chinese in America and it's about a specific heritage it's also something that we hope resonates with any immigrant because no matter where you came from you bring it with you a little bit and how does your heritage how does your cultural identity resonate and help shape who we all are today so we're getting excited that more people are finding out about this place and they went from a 2,000 square foot place into this 14,000 square foot space Manhattan we bridge between Chinatown and Soho and it's really we were guests and we look West that we're a real bridge between time in between culture on a more personal level would you say that it helps you learn about your heritage get in touch with your background absolutely and partly because I was again there's a phrase ABC American born Chinese I was probably feeling more closely tied to be an American I'm very American actually but at the same time I've learned so much about the history of Chinese in America and also this is a complex one because people have come over in different distinct waves they've come over from different parts of China they've ended up in different parts in America so literally I did not realize that you're the only race in America excluded from citizenship and that was on the books from 1872 till the 1940s and were the first to sue for civil rights in San Francisco so I think a lot about what a museum like this can do is break down stereotypes and change people's ideas of what it is so even when you first come in the door you see an ability it's called a journey well where did people come from in China where did they end up in the US and it's not just the China tests all over the country and so there's a multitude of ways in which to come and visit and to really learn about a history and I've learned so much that's really part of me story of Chinese Americans or maybe it's American Chinese tells specific stories which are at times difficult compelling and hopefully inspiring for me I've been brought into this partly because of a question that's been asked many times where are you from and I would say Ohio and they would look at me pause and say no where are you really from you have a contemporary art piece at the United States Embassy in Beijing pin River Yangtze which is consists of 30,000 stainless steel pin straight pins right how did you get the idea for that all my art work has been focused on nature and topography and terrain and in a way I'm like a landscape painter it's just that we have many more tools of looking at the world around us of the natural world so for me I'm also very committed environmentalist so that we tend to pollute what we don't see what we don't know river systems are so long that you're only thinking about where you are you're not thinking about what's upstream you're not thinking about what's downstream actually people are really concerned when they live downstream from someone who's polluting but if you're upstream sometimes you're not thinking about where it's going so in a way I focus many times on things getting you to look at things that you might not realize as a single entity so the Yangtze when the US Embassy approached me to do an artwork for them I really wanted to share a new way of looking at the Yangtze River which is such an important part of China and are and anyone's ideas of China and so it was just a way where I could bring my voice as an artist and as well as combine it with my environmental concerns and in conjunction with China what part of China's development is a most interest to you frankly I think China can so learn as they develop so rapidly from all the mistakes made by all the developed nations who came out in the 1800s and 1900s you know the amount of pollution we have to clean up with the Queen Air Act Clean Water Act we I always believe the past is here to inform the future and so China as it developed so rapidly can develop in a way that is so much better and so much greener and that's the potential that in an interview that in your 20s and 30s you really became aware that your art had it had an Eastern character can you describe your journey and how you discover that I think even with the first one people said the Vietnam world's so Asian and quality and I think that the thing is it's there's a side to my work that is not didactic it doesn't try to preach something to you it tries to give you information and allow you to draw from it almost as if from a well I think it's a balance between my Eastern and my western heritage is coming out maybe it's from how my parents raised us so it's definitely again very interested in how does our background where we come from how does that manifest itself in our voice whether you're a bank or whether you're up internet designer with you an artist only think that's something I'm very you know I think interested in and knowing more about and I I'll bet you that growing up both Chinese and American in this country helps set up maybe an interest in I call it the boundary line the line between opposites and I'm very drawn to it and you have two daughters that you're currently raising how are you teaching them about their Chinese heritage how are you helping them get in touch with that well I think they've actually been here both with their school trips um at tomoko twice we've taken them to China a few times there they're both American and and Chinese they're mixed they're what we call I guess half as or halfs and they're learning about both they're learning about they're like my parents and my grandparents we're now putting a book together my mom and I of their their relatives and their their their their their past in China what the past was like my mother smuggled out of China in a Chinese bunk up a Chinese um junk boat and she's written that story and so being able to show your kids letters your grandfather wrote your mother and being able to put it together as a document and then give it to the grandkids is something we're actually working on right now so they also took Chinese for a few years but they sort of took a break from it for a little while but I think they're interested and I think that's a great thing to kind of connect us in time to to our heritage so they're constantly around at all times and they're getting in getting a part of theirs how is it how is your art have you found that it's changed over the years or as intentionally the funny thing is I've been making art since I was ever since I can remember my dad was Dean of Fine Arts and so my my after-school hours were spent in his ceramics studio so art has been second nature to me I think literally when you do something as public as um well Vietnam Memorial it's such an early age you actually put it aside you respect it and you like it but then you go on and say hey look I'm very interested in art I'm equally interested in architecture and I'm going to pursue both I also didn't give up the memorials and so after Vietnam I worked on the civil rights and I'm working on all last Memorial right now but I think I found a balance and I call it a tripod between the art the architecture and the memorials and they each inform one another but I love the differences and again that might be because I grew up between two cultures so that I love the bridging between different disciplines and it's something that pervades almost all my work how do you think your experiences have influenced you as an artist they have and they haven't I think I'm someone as an artist who basically grew up as a kid making everything in my bedroom basically and there is a side to me that is very much I'm living in my imagination and one could say it's infinite and one could also say it's like we hermetic in in feel at times so I've like I study things I'm interested in science I'm interested in looking at satellite views of the earth I'm interested in delving into the terrain of an ocean topography and so part of me is doing this a little bit with just an incredible curiosity then the other side is I've had to live in a very public way since I was 20 21 and so for a very long time I wouldn't tell my colleagues my classmates I'm running off to do like a a Time magazine piece or something like that I kind of keep that side of me the public side a little bit separate and now you know we're all old enough and everyone's you know six doing what they're doing in and you can almost combine the public side to the private side a little bit more and I'm not as I'm gonna say a little I was a little embarrassed when I was a kid because I go off and I do fairly public things but I didn't want anyone my friends to know about it because it was a little like it was just a little out of what they were doing I wanted to kind of fit in I wanted to go through grad school and be like a normal grad grad student and so I managed to balance it I think that's something in any one of us if anyone has to deal with a little bit of Fame or publicity it's almost like it's there it's nice but maintain course with who you are and try to figure out what your voice is as an artist or as a writer or as a or as of whatever you want to do but don't let this other side kind of take over I think that's sort of how I've worked my life we've seen your end processes of these great memorials and the large-scale installations but how does your design inspiration start I mean where do you get it you get a curious idea that you want experience something or that you want to answer a question well if I want to look right now I'm very curious about what the terrain is like right outside of New York are underwater why don't know why sometimes as an artist you really want to pursue just for the sake it's like almost okay get back to that child in all of us and be curious be open to discover it and I think you know there's a really cute children's but but think like a child and it's actually sometimes very hard to think that open eyed and because as we get older we learn from experience so we are always applying what we know now so I think one of the focuses in almost all my work is can I get you to suspend disbelief can I get you to almost look at something and be very immediately connected to it and not think about well that reminds me of this and that one was just experience something and that's something that's very much a part of whether the work is art or architecture so just be in the moment and in a moment and almost try to absorb it so you're almost talking to people from a combination of the psychology of the space as well as the the pure experience of looking and it with sculpture and architecture it's walking through a space and being a part in a participant so I think one thing that ties all the works together is they're very human and scale and they want to dialogue with you on a very perceptual basis if you want people to experience really your art instead of just looking at it hearing it right species but also the habitats that they desperately need partly inspired by the old RCA Victor image of our masters voice and it's it's listen to the earth and it's pay attention so it's it's like one of those old-fashioned listening devices but this is your latest work what is missing is also your last Memorial why is it your last I tend to work in series as an artist so oftentimes in odd numbers so three or five what is missing is my last fifth and last of the memorials and even though I say it's my last I'll be contributing to it for the rest of my life I've been fortunate enough to have been called in whether it's civil rights the Vietnam War women's rights for the women's table at Yale Native American issues for the confluence project so I've worked on and focused on some of the leading sort of political cultural issues of our time it's about the environment it's about 20 years ago I started cooking data and information about 10 years ago I announced that my we'll be focused on the environment and five years ago I started Sciences but I also set up my own not for profit foundation so this is an interesting idea I feel like when I did the Vietnam Memorial is a very different type of memorial as humans it became intimate and scale it was below grade it it was sold the names and so again I'm very interested in rethinking about something so what if I can make an award that could jump for me that could be in multiple places multiple sites some of them permanent some of them take world what if I could engage you sound so Cornell ethology webs the BBC National Geographic they donated all film and all sounds we've made over 75 in a one to two minute educational films but we've also taken over the MTV billboard in Times Square we have a website what is missing dotnet which you can enter and it tells you an ecological history of the planet but it also links to all groups there over 40 environmental groups conservation and action what they're all doing it looks at the greatest successes the greatest failures and by next year we'll start to look at the world not just the past in the present but the future so I think if I think about a memorial and we always think there pants I think one was teaching us about history so we can live differently in the present future so to me memorials have always been about engaging the public to to maybe change behavior which one we have to accurately remember to look at so let's what we trade what's wrong with the sinistairs but again that's something that whether it's a signature is Amerigo there is something very much education about these rules that they in their village ten days darker this is a multimedia piece do you think this is the direction that memorials are going in aren't you hope that I don't think so I think it's it allows me an ability to really play with redefining what a memorial can be I actually think it is as much a physical permanent installation at the Cal Academy of Sciences we've promised one to the Field Museum in Chicago to IU San and blonde so there are very much I think that nothing can replace the three-dimensionality I mean it's sort of like we can't substitute our lives with the internet but I do think the about the connection between what we experienced in the digital world versus the actual world should be a seamless back and forward way I think they're all lenses they're all giving us ways of looking at who we are and I think if we can bridge better understanding about that and share that that's something that's a huge important with what can be and this earth is incredibly resilient and what once was can come back if we let it and if we give it space and we take care of their homes so I ask the question how can we protect it if we don't even see it as existing of nature to become the music of the pieces so can appeal to a broad a broad range which memorials have to they have to they have to talk to almost everyone of different age groups of different knowledge bases and I love that sort of like almost being able to reach out to different groups that's different what they're bringing with it so again that's the non didactic part like I want to present information trying to get people to wake up and use history and memory as almost a vehicle to spur action every dot represents a story about the natural world past present and future so you can see these stories geo-located or if you want to see it chronologically you just press view in time or place looking ahead to the 21st century and generations to come what do you think is the meaning of art to society oh the meaning of art to society has been to so many artists different things I think for me it won't change art has always been another language and another voice in another way one artist but an artist is part of a certain time period has looked at the world around them a lot of times they look they're a little bit more forward-thinking they're getting to a place where maybe the rest of the public isn't yet but they could imagine something in we can go to it I think art is a way for us it captures the time you're in but it also pushes us to think about where we might want to be going so it's a combination of present and future and also past and past and I think it's different for every artist it's also very personal I think what makes us unique is that we have from time immemorial made things we've drawn on caves we've created these huge stone works we don't need it to survive we don't need it to eat or to sustain ourselves we've just done it and it sets us apart so art will be with us from I think wit from when we first started out and that primordial soup until - yes exactly as Milan discussed with us in our interview today the ability to bring together eastern and western cultures art and science allows us to be more informed citizens and therefore work on a global level more together thank you so much for joining us today I'm Christy Clemens tune in next time by

Channel: SinoVision 美国中文电视

Views: 26,769

Rating: 4.9227052 out of 5

Keywords: Maya Lin, Talk Television Show, Chinese, Chinese American, MOCA, Architect, Artist, sculpture in landscape, architect artists, memorial artists, architect art, maya lin documentary, architect and artist, artist and architect, maya lin video, WETALK, architect maya lin, maya lin architect, maya lin memorials, pictures of maya lin, maya lin pictures, architect art design, maya lin architecture, maya lin artwork, maya lin facts, maya lin biography

Id: vLyXqY0X2iE

Length: 22min 40sec (1360 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 10 2012