Obama Presidential Center<\/a> in Chicago, set to open to the public next month.<\/p>\nFive of Lin\u2019s works will also be on view at Pace Gallery\u2019s booth at Frieze New York this week. There are pieces that call attention to bodies of water that are disappearing or that have already disappeared \u2014 Lake Chad in North Africa and the Aral Sea in Central Asia \u2014 along with a piece focused on the Antarctic Circle, and a new silver sculpture, \u201cSilver Yellowstone,\u201d that is inspired by the Yellowstone River, widely considered to be the longest free-flowing river in the lower 48 states.<\/p>\n
In a recent series of interviews in her home office on Manhattan\u2019s Upper East Side, at the JPMorgan Chase building and during the ramble through the rocky terrain near the lower eastern end of Central Park known as the \u201cDene,\u201d a British term for a valley, Lin described the woods and rock cliffs she remembered from growing up in Ohio.<\/p>\n
\u201cWater would just subtly drip down the cliffs, and there would be ferns and grasses and things growing there,\u201d she explained, adding, \u201cI was definitely out there in nature almost daily, and very concerned about environmental issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
Central Park, which Lin explores regularly when she is in Manhattan, was its own inspiration. Her family also has a home in southwestern Colorado, where she hikes and bikes every summer.<\/p>\n
In 2022, she and representatives of JPMorgan Chase and Tishman Speyer, the development manager of the new skyscraper, took a daylong walk through the park, looking for a rock formation that could serve as the model for \u201cA Parallel Nature\u201d and \u201cbring a little bit of the character\u201d of the park to the building, Lin said.<\/p>\n
They initially failed to identify anything appropriate. Lin returned the next morning on her own and came across the Dene, which she had seen on previous walks through the park.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first got a call to look at the building site, I realized that the subway would be running underneath it,\u201d Lin explained. \u201cAnd I saw an excavation photo of Grand Central Station that showed that its construction cut through Manhattan\u2019s bedrock. And I just had an idea, \u2018What if I could bring bedrock to the surface in the middle of Manhattan?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I am interested in is, quite literally, grounding you in what might be right below your feet that you might not be aware of,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Capturing the Dene on the exterior wall of the skyscraper, Lin explained, would enable her to express the character of an exposed stone outcropping in Manhattan, quite literally bringing bedrock to the surface, in a way that echoes the Dene in Central Park.<\/p>\n
Lin identified a type of gray granite from Barre, Vt., for \u201cA Parallel Nature\u201d that she called a perfect match with the metamorphic rock known as gneissic schist on which the JPMorgan Chase skyscraper sits.<\/p>\n
The 239 stone pieces mounted atop the artwork\u2019s two walls were cut by the Quarra Stone Company, a Wisconsin-based stone fabricator that transported the stone on large, flatbed trucks from Vermont to Wisconsin and then to Manhattan. Lin called the installation of the walls on the facade of the skyscraper her most difficult commission yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrying to create something that would be a balance between natural and man-made was the aesthetic challenge,\u201d she explained. \u201cAnd to keep the artwork as a sculptural creation rather than an architectonic solution \u2014 also the engineering to fabricate and install \u2014 were intricate and extremely complex.\u201d<\/p>\n
The stonework on each wall is composed of over 100 pieces of granite, Lin said, \u201cso by grouping 15 to 20 pieces together and ever so slightly tilting them, I was able to create larger groupings to help create what I call city states. These helped make each wall feel like it was comprised of larger plates.\u201d <\/p>\n
Each of the pieces is hung, in a puzzle-like formation, from a steel bracket system installed on a steel ladder frame system anchored to the concrete support wall on the lowest level of the building\u2019s Madison Avenue facade.<\/p>\n
At the foot of each wall is a streambed with waterworn rocks that came from near the headquarters of the Wisconsin fabricator, chosen to work well with the gray granite walls. Water gently flows in the beds, creating a burbling stream in the middle of Midtown traffic cacophony. Lin calls the stream \u201can unexpected natural moment in the busy city.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are also two sources of water on the walls themselves, meant to irrigate the plantings in the walls\u2019 seams. One is a drip irrigation line installed behind what Lin calls \u201cplant pockets,\u201d holes 10 to 12 inches deep that range in length from 3 to 7 feet and that are designed to hold the artwork\u2019s vegetation.<\/p>\n
The second is a drip irrigation system that runs along the top of the rock walls. This gently drips continuous streams of water that find their way down and beneath the surface of the rock, nourishing the plantings in the crevices and ledges. The system is designed to encourage plant growth and to bring the sound of trickling water to the facade.<\/p>\n
Lin is working with specialists on the plantings, including Blondie\u2019s Treehouse, a Manhattan plant installer and supplier; Cecil Howell, a Brooklyn-based landscape architect who has worked with Lin on a number of recent environmental art installations; and Richard Hayden, the project\u2019s consulting horticulturist, who is also the senior director of horticulture for the High Line, a public park built on a historic elevated rail line on Manhattan\u2019s west side.<\/p>\n
Though some plants were installed in late October, it was understood that since water would not be available until late fall, spring would be the ideal time for fresh planting.<\/p>\n
Urban environments are tough on plants, Lin explained, calling the site\u2019s horticulture \u201can experiment.\u201d The horticulture team is trying more than 30 varieties of plants to see which ones thrive where, she said, adding that she expected the plants to be monitored and plantings adjusted quarterly.<\/p>\n
Lin said she wanted \u201cto create a predominantly native New York landscape reminiscent of what you might find naturally growing on rocks and within crevices in actual rock faces and ledges\u201d to make visitors aware of the nature around them.<\/p>\n
New plants growing this spring include maidenhair fern, Eastern red columbine, creeping phlox, Christmas fern and dwarf crested iris.<\/p>\n
Just across from each of the artwork\u2019s walls are a flower garden and native red maple trees, as well as long, sinuous concrete benches designed by Norman Foster, the skyscraper\u2019s architect, all meant to create a sort of public park.<\/p>\n
\u201cA Parallel Nature,\u201d as its name implies, \u201cneither tries to perfectly recreate nature, nor feel architecturally fabricated,\u201d Lin explained. \u201cIt is a work that makes ambiguous the line between the natural and the man-made.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sculpture is one of five works of public art commissioned for the new building by JPMorgan Chase \u2014 whose art collection was founded in 1959 by David Rockefeller, then executive vice president and vice chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank. The skyscraper\u2019s other new works include that LED light work at the summit by Leo Villareal<\/a>, whose art will also be on view at the Pace Gallery exhibit at Frieze; two paintings by Gerhard Richter in the building\u2019s lobby; a 3-D printed, bronze column by Foster, also in the lobby; and a display of light and motion at the lobby\u2019s elevator banks, driven by custom A.I. models by the Turkish artist Refik Anadol.<\/p>\nDavid Arena, head of global real estate for JPMorgan Chase, said the bank had deliberately lifted up both the Madison Avenue and Park Avenue bases of the new building 85 feet to create more outdoor space for pedestrians. \u201cWhen passers-by step on the Madison Avenue curb,\u201d he said, \u201cthey are awe-struck, think differently, have a moment of respite.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought it would be a great spot to make a gift to Manhattan and to people in the neighborhood who can come up, have a seat, enjoy a cup of coffee, enjoy some great art, maybe think differently,\u201d he said.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also called Lin \u201cone of the most accomplished modern-day artists, a strong enough talent to be a counterpoint to Norman Foster.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lin agrees with Arena\u2019s predictions about the artwork. \u201cEven though it can dialogue with the building in scale, it adds an unexpected, natural respite from the busy street life, offering a different feeling,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a recent spring afternoon, the renowned artist and designer Maya Lin clambered up and down a rocky…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5462,1149,88997,72891,80608,87854,89484,75,84,83,64924,9,24,56,63,89485],"class_list":["post-227844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-architecture","tag-art","tag-buildings-structures","tag-central-park-manhattan","tag-collectors-and-collections","tag-jpmorgan-chase-company","tag-lin","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-maya","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-rock-and-stone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}