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Feminists Around the World: Maya Lin · Stuff Mom Never Told You

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  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Steph
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  Speaker 1: Whenever told your production of iHeartRadio.
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  Speaker 2: And welcome to feminists around the world. And yeah, we're
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  Speaker 2: ending AAPI History Month. It is the thirtieth of May.
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  Speaker 2: Just to twenty twenty three, just to put a timestamp,
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  Speaker 2: because you know you may be listening ten years down
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  Speaker 2: the road and be like what, but yeah, for us recording,
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  Speaker 2: it is the end of AAPI History Month. And we
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  Speaker 2: wind in with the Chinese American artists who's been using
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  Speaker 2: her talents to advocate for the environment and human rights
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  Speaker 2: issues all over the world. It is still using our
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  Speaker 2: talent today to make powerful statements. And we are talking
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  Speaker 2: about and celebrating the works of Maya Lynn. Lynn is
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  Speaker 2: an architect, designer, and artists who's been designing for decades
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  Speaker 2: and has been celebrated for her work and advocacy. As
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  Speaker 2: one article from PBS dot org set about Lynn's journey.
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  Speaker 2: One of the rare few who have managed to forge
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  Speaker 2: a path in both art and architecture, maaln is at
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  Speaker 2: once sculptor, architect, designer, craftsman, and thinker, says art critic
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  Speaker 2: Michael Brinson. Since she founded her own Studio in nineteen
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  Speaker 2: eighty six. Maya Linn has been proposing ways of thinking
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  Speaker 2: and imagining that resist categories, genres, and borders, said Brinson,
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  Speaker 2: and her works have touched people in a way unprecedented
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  Speaker 2: in contemporary art and architecture. Whether creating public or private
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  Speaker 2: art or architectural works, Maya Linn creates places of refuge
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  Speaker 2: and contemplation in highly publized places. She has redefined the
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  Speaker 2: idea of monument, addressing the critical social and political issues
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  Speaker 2: of our time, war, racism, and gender equality with her
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  Speaker 2: highly acclaimed work.
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  Speaker 1: Lynn was born in Ohio in nineteen fifty nine to
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  Speaker 1: Henry Kwan Linn and Julia Chang Lin, who had both
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  Speaker 1: immigrated from China. Both of her parents were not only educators,
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  Speaker 1: but artists as well. In fact, it has been said
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  Speaker 1: that Lynn's aunt, Lynn Huiyin, was known as the first
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  Speaker 1: woman architect in modern China. Her father was the dean
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  Speaker 1: of the Ohio University of Fine Arts and her mother
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  Speaker 1: was professor of Literature of the same university. And as
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  Speaker 1: a daughter of educators, she spent a lot of time
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  Speaker 1: in her youth studying rather than playing with other children.
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  Speaker 1: While she was attending high school, Lynn took courses at
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  Speaker 1: the Ohio University and even learned to cast bronze at
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  Speaker 1: that time. She went on to attend Yale University, where
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  Speaker 1: she graduated with the bachelor's in Arts and continued with
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  Speaker 1: a master's degree in architecture.
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  Speaker 2: Right and one of her main focuses in her work
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  Speaker 2: has been on nature and environmental issues. Here's a quote
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  Speaker 2: from her site. Nature and the environment have long been
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  Speaker 2: a central concern for Lynn, who attended Yale University. When
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  Speaker 2: she earned a BA in nineteen eighty one and a
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  Speaker 2: Master's of Architecture degree in nineteen eighty six, Lynn was
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  Speaker 2: thrust into the spotlight with as a senior at Yale,
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  Speaker 2: she submitted the winning design in a national competition for
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  Speaker 2: the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to be built in Washington. D
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  Speaker 2: c Lin's art explores how we experience and relate to landscape,
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  Speaker 2: setting up a systemic ordering of the land that is
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  Speaker 2: tied to history, memory, time, and language. Her interest in
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  Speaker 2: landscape has led to works influenced by topographies and geographic phenomena.
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  Speaker 2: And another quote from the PBS article, it says, quote
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  Speaker 2: throughout Violin's body of work is a profound respect and
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  Speaker 2: love for the natural environment. Her interest in landscape has
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  Speaker 2: led to works influenced by natural topographies and geologic phenomenon,
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  Speaker 2: finding inspirations from rock formations to ice floes, water patterns,
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  Speaker 2: solar eclips and aerial views of the Earth. Influenced by
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  Speaker 2: the earth artists of the sixties and seventies, Linn brings
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  Speaker 2: a very contemporary perspective to the theme of landscape by
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  Speaker 2: merging the rational order of high technology with the transcendental
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  Speaker 2: and irregular forms of nature.
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  Speaker 1: And it was at the age of twenty one that
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  Speaker 1: Lynn designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial as a class project,
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  Speaker 1: and though she had one out of fourteen hundred other submissions,
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  Speaker 1: she faced a lot of controversy and criticism. Here's a
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  Speaker 1: quote about her project and the criticism. Her striking proposal,
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  Speaker 1: a vwshaped wall of blackstone etched with the names of
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  Speaker 1: fifty eight thousand dead soldiers, beat out the submissions of
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  Speaker 1: fourteenenty twenty other entrants. She encountered ferocious criticism when her
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  Speaker 1: unconventional design was selected. And here's another quote. Her winning
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  Speaker 1: design was initially controversial for several reasons. Its minimalist design,
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  Speaker 1: her lack of professional experience, and her Asian ethnicity. According
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  Speaker 1: to one writer quote, some viewed her selection as an affront.
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  Speaker 1: They could not understand how a woman, a youth, and
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  Speaker 1: a Chinese American could design a memorial for men, for soldiers,
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  Speaker 1: and for Americans. Some objected to the exclusion of the
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  Speaker 1: surviving veteran's names, while others complained about the dark complexion
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  Speaker 1: of the granite, claiming that it expressed a negative attitude
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  Speaker 1: towards the Vietnam War.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and apparently this was a blind interest. And she
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  Speaker 2: has said before that it if it had not been
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  Speaker 2: for that, she probably would not have won. And here's
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  Speaker 2: what she had to say about the memorial, and it's
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  Speaker 2: from her site. One of my classmates had seen the
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  Speaker 2: poster for a competition for the design of a Vietnam
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  Speaker 2: Veterans memorial, and since we had just completed an assignment
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  Speaker 2: for the design of a memorial to World War IIE,
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  Speaker 2: we chose to end this class with this project. In
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  Speaker 2: researching for the World War assignment, I had noticed how
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  Speaker 2: war memorials often focused on the victor rather than on
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  Speaker 2: the individual soldiers' lives. Until the memorials to World War
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  Speaker 2: One in Europe. Those monuments were created listing all the
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  Speaker 2: names of soldiers lost in the battles. The use of
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  Speaker 2: identification tags had not yet been introduced, and with the
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  Speaker 2: onset of modern warfare, there was no way to recognize
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  Speaker 2: and identify so many of the soldiers. So many of
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  Speaker 2: the monuments were erected to the missing, with all the
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  Speaker 2: names of those killed that listed. I was struck by
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  Speaker 2: how emotionally powerful they were, and I knew that I
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  Speaker 2: wanted to create a work that would focus as well
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  Speaker 2: on the individuals. On seeing the site in Washington, d C.
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  Speaker 2: Over thanks gaping break, I had an impulse to cut
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  Speaker 2: open the earth. I imagine cutting into the earth and
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  Speaker 2: polishing its open sides like a geode. We had also
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  Speaker 2: just received the guidelines for the competition, which stipulated that
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  Speaker 2: the names of those killed be listed and that the
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  Speaker 2: memorial be a political and contemplative in nature. My design
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  Speaker 2: evolved into two black granite walls placed below grade, engraved
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  Speaker 2: in chronological order with the names of the men and
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  Speaker 2: women who gave their lives in the Vietnam War. At
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  Speaker 2: the apex where the two walls joined, the dates nineteen
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  Speaker 2: fifty nine and nineteen seventy three marking the beginning and
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  Speaker 2: end of the war meet, thus closing the circle of
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  Speaker 2: the time span of the war. Avarian confined his or
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  Speaker 2: her own time on the wall, and all visitors would
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  Speaker 2: be able to see themselves reflected in the names. I
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  Speaker 2: wanted the memorial to create a private and personal connection
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  Speaker 2: with each viewer to those names. The memorial sighting is
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  Speaker 2: directly related to the presence of both the Lincoln Memorial
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  Speaker 2: and Washington Monument, tying the three together physically and historically.
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  Speaker 2: The semester ended, and I decided to enter the design
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  Speaker 2: in the actual competition that spring, not because I had
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  Speaker 2: any thought it could win, but because I wanted to
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  Speaker 2: say something about making this memorial personal, human and focused
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  Speaker 2: on the individual experience. I wanted to honestly present that
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  Speaker 2: time and reflect upon our relationship to war and to loss.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, but the memorial wasn't her only notable works. She
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  Speaker 1: also designed the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, am Obama,
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  Speaker 1: the Peach Chapel at Pennsylvania's Juniata College, the Women's Table
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  Speaker 1: at Yale, and the Langston Hughes Library in Clinton, Tennessee.
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  Speaker 1: But art and architecture haven't been the only thing she
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  Speaker 1: has been working on. She has served as advisor on
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  Speaker 1: Sustainable Energy Use and served as a board member for
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  Speaker 1: the National Resources Defense Council, and her works have earned
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  Speaker 1: her many accolades, including being awarded the National Medal of
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  Speaker 1: Arts by President Obama in two thousand and nine and
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  Speaker 1: given the Presidential Medal of Freedom in twenty sixteen.
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  Speaker 2: Right, And if you want to learn more of her work,
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  Speaker 2: she has both a book and an Academy Award winning documentary.
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  Speaker 2: You can catch the book titled Boundaries, which she did, right,
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  Speaker 2: and the documentary titled Maya Lynn A Strong Clear Vision
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  Speaker 2: that was from nineteen ninety four, I believe, so it's
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  Speaker 2: a little outdated, but obviously she has a lot of
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  Speaker 2: amazing works out there. And in twenty twenty two, the
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  Speaker 2: Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery exhibited the first biographical exhibit titled
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  Speaker 2: One Life Maya Linn, which was dedicated to her works
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  Speaker 2: and her contributions. Yeah, so she obviously is still getting
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  Speaker 2: a lot of recognition. She's still doing a lot of work.
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  Speaker 2: They are just recent projects that she's completed that they're
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  Speaker 2: still writing about it. I believe one of them was
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  Speaker 2: like her final project, but then she ended up doing
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  Speaker 2: another one so I'm sure there's much much more out there.
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  Speaker 1: I feel like that's the way. Your question is the end,
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  Speaker 1: and then wait a minute, called I'm called to do Yes. Well,
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  Speaker 1: I'm sure we'll be checking back in in the meantime.
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  Speaker 1: As always, listeners, if you have a suggestion for this
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  Speaker 1: super producer Christina, our executive producer Maya, and our contributor Joey.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you all, and thanks to you for listening. Steffan
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