Maya Lin examines landscape and the world around us. Born to Chinese immigrants (a ceramicist and a poet) in Athens, Ohio, Lin came to attention when she won the Vietnam Veterans Memorial competition in Washington D.C. as a Yale undergraduate. She has since designed memorials in honor of the civil rights movement, women at Yale, and local history in the Pacific Northwest.
Her solo exhibition at the Heinz Architectural Center in 2012 featured Blue Lake Pass, which occupied an entire gallery. According to Lin, by āpulling the terrain apart so that one can walk through the landscape, I wanted to shift oneās perspective about the land [with this work]. Allowing a viewpoint that is more geologic in character.ā
The exhibition also featured Mac World (Cupertino), which exemplifies Linās fascination with books and the presentation of data. One of several works Lin has created from product packaging, Mac World (Cupertino) is made from de-assembled Apple Mac boxes. The familiar multi-colored cardboard is cut and layered to playfully mimic the rise and fall of the land close to the Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California. Mac World (Cupertino) was acquired shortly following the exhibition.