Comes now the famous Maya Lin, who asks the question:
“What would happen if you took a hill inside?”
It might look something like what she’s standing on, which is called 2 x 4 Landscape. You can check out this installation and the rest of Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park until January 18th, 2009.
This wire grid depicts an underwater “landscape” we can’t otherwise see:
The affable Ms. Lin with Presenting Curator Karin Breuer and Fiona Chan:
Maya gave a short talk under the shimmering perforated copper walls of the new de Young:
This is yet another big show from Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Director John Buchanan and Board President Diane B. “Dede” Wilsey. Brace yourselves, more blockbusters are on the way:
Travis Kiyota, PG&E’s government and public affairs director for the Bay Area, said a few words about his employer being the presenting sponsor for this exhibit:
And wouldn’t you like a limited edition Maya Lin to put up your wall as a talking piece? There’s special pricing until December 1, 2008 – $12,500 for non-museum members:
“This new limited-edition sculpture by Maya Lin, created on the occasion of her exhibition at the de Young continues the artist’s exploration of the contours of natural forms. Its thin, sinuous shape traces the path of the Tuolumne River through the Hetch Hetchy Valley. Cast from the reclaimed silver of photo etchings, the work is mounted with pins that fix to the wall. The edition is presented in an elegant, hot-stamped portfolio box.”
Now according to 7×7 Magazine and the San Francisco Chronicle, this representation is meant to show the Tuolomne River before the Hetch Hetchy dam, but it sure looks like you can see both the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and the New San Pedro Reservoir in there. It’s certainly possible to think that Maya meant to depict the dammed river as it appears these days.
More details after the jump. See you there!
Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes
At the de Young Museum
Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes is organized for the Henry Art Gallery by Richard Andrews. Major support is provided by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Peter Norton Family Foundation.
The San Francisco presentation is presented by PG&E and is made possible by the Ednah Root Foundation and bequests from the Evelyn A. Westberg Trust and Margrit Landesmann
Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes at the de Young Museum
Exhibition dates: October 25, 2008 – January 18, 2009
Recent sculptures, drawings, and installations by the celebrated artist Maya Lin are on view at the de Young Museum October 25, 2008, to January 18, 2009. Lin (b. 1959) came to prominence in 1981 with her design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and has since achieved a high degree of recognition for a body of work that includes monuments, buildings, earthworks, sculpture, and installations. Systematic Landscapes is Lin’s second nationally-traveling exhibition in ten years, with venues in Seattle, St. Louis, San Diego, and Washington, D.C. “This exhibition continues my interest in exploring notions of landscape and geologic phenomena,” says Lin. “The works created, both small- and large-scale installations, reveal new and at times unexpected views of the natural world: from the topology of the ocean floor to the stratified layers of a mountain to a form that sits between water and earth.”
Lin’s extraordinary ability to convey complex and poetic ideas using simple forms and natural materials is fully evident in Systematic Landscapes. Working in a scale that relates to the land, and combining a deep interest in forces and forms of nature with a long-term investigation into the possibilities of sculptural form to embody meaning, this exhibition offers a rich, immersive experience for visitors that brings the sensory understanding of Lin’s outdoor works inside.
Lin has created a trio of large-scale sculptural installations for the exhibition that present different ways to encounter and comprehend the landscape. 2×4 Landscape (2006), a vast hill built of 65,000 boards set on end, presents a land surface rising from the gallery floor. Water Line (2006), a wire-frame three-dimensional drawing in space based on an undersea formation, is installed overhead and dips into the visitor’s sightline. Blue Lake Pass (2006) is a topographic translation of a Colorado mountain range made of layers of stacked particleboard that have been segmented and pulled apart to create landscape strata through which the visitor can see.
Systematic Landscapes also includes a series of sculptures based on the water volumes of various inland seas; plaster reliefs of imagined landscapes that are embedded directly into gallery walls; large drawings of landforms and river sheds; and altered atlases that present alternative topographies.
Concurrent with Systematic Landscapes is the debut of Maya Lin’s public art installation Where the Land Meets the Sea, a tubular wire sculpture commissioned by the San Francisco Arts Commission for the California Academy of Sciences, also in Golden Gate Park. The installation is the first permanent work by Lin in San Francisco. The de Young exhibition will feature small-scale models, maquettes, and renderings of the piece, engaging audiences in Lin’s creative thinking process and studio practice.
Organization
This exhibition was organized for the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington and curated by its director, Richard Andrews. Karin Breuer, the curator in charge of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, is the installation curator at the de Young Museum.
de Young Visitor Information:
The de Young, designed by Herzog & de Meuron and located in Golden Gate Park, showcases American art from the 17th through the 21st centuries, international contemporary art, textiles and costumes, and art from the Americas, the Pacific, and Africa.
Golden Gate Park50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco, CA 94118
Tuesday–Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, 9:30 am–5:15 pm; Friday 9:30 am–8:45 pm, closed on Monday
$20 adults$17 seniors$16 youths 13–17 and students with a college I.D.Members and children 12 and under are free. Above prices include the $10 special exhibition surcharge. The first Tuesday of every month is free ($10 specialexhibition surcharge still applies) $10 admission to see the permanent collection only.
www.deyoungmuseum.org 415.750.3600
Tags: 2 x 4, de Young, famsf, Fine Arts Museums, golden gate park, maya lin, museum, pacific gas and electric, pg&e, San Francisco, systematic landscapes