Folding the Chesapeake, 2015
Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
Glass marbles, adhesive
26’-6” x 32’-7” x 22’-9”
Photography: Ron Blunt, courtesy Smithsonian American Art Museum
Growing up in Ohio in the 1960s, Maya watched her father participate in the fledgling studio glass movement then gathering steam in nearby Toledo. The marbles used in this installation are the same industrial fiberglass product Henry Huan Lin and other glass-blowing pioneers experimented with then, which were soon abandoned by artists as technical knowledge matured. Folding the Chesapeake marks their first use by Maya Lin and a new chapter in her decades-long investigation of natural wonders. By shaping rivers, fields, canyons, and mountains within the museum, Lin shifts our attention to their outdoor counterparts, sharpening our focus on the need for their conservation.
Related Press:
Bowley, Graham. Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery Reopens With a New Focus. The New York Times (November 12, 2015)
Nodjimbadem, Katie. Maya Lin Used 54,000 Marbles to Model the Chesapeake Bay. Smithsonian Magazine (November 2015)