Maya Lin has built monuments
in clay, granite, water, earth, glass and wood. Her most famous monument is the
Vietnam Veterans Memorial, an opportunity she won in a contest she entered
anonymously as a college student. It was
controversial from the beginning. Critics
wondered why a person of Asian heritage should design a monument to veterans of
a war fought against Asians. Others criticized what appeared to them as a black
scar in the earth. But now this monument in Washington, D.C., is visited by
more than three million people every year.
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| Vietnam Veterans Memorial/Creative Commons photo |
Susan Goldman Rubin’s new and
highly acclaimed biography of Maya Lin – Maya
Lin: thinking with her hands - includes photos of the many more monuments
and sculptures she has designed, along with her struggles about whether and how
to design each one.
“I try to understand the
‘why’ of a project before it’s a ‘what.’”
She used the Civil Rights Memorial
in Montgomery, Alabama, to “give people an understanding of what that time
period was about.” She literally
sculpted the earth to create a grassy Wave
Field at the University of Michigan’s aerospace engineering building. She
redesigned an old barn for a retreat center in Tennessee for the Children’s
Defense Fund.
Not only is Maya Lin: Thinking with her hands a
thought-provoking story of how an artist works, it can spur conversations and
writing as well. It could be a perfect
way to open a discussion of national and local monuments – including the many
that are controversial right now - but you could also have students :
· Write about a monument or statue in your town. What
does it mean to you? Why is it important for that statue to be in your town?
· Do you think there are other monuments that could be
added or removed from your town?
Write a persuasive essay explaining your reasons.
· If your school is named for a person, what sort of
monument would you create to honor that person? This could be a class project,
especially for younger children. (My own children’s elementary school in
Montgomery County, Maryland, was always known just as “Barnsley.” Turns out it
was the first Montgomery County school named for a woman. Lucy V. Barnsley not
only taught for 35 years, but also donated books to start the first library in
Rockville and started the Retired Teachers Association in the county.)
· Design a monument to any person or event that is
important to you and write an artist’s statement about your monument. Maya Lin’s essay about her Vietnam Veterans
Memorial competition entry is included in the book, but may also be read here.
Maya Lin expects her last
commission to be a project called “What is Missing?” at the
Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York. This ecological history of the
planet invites scientists, conservationists and everyone to find ways to “learn
enough from the past to rethink a different and better future.” And that can
spark many many more writing ideas.
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