2 X 4 Landscape 2006

Maya Lin’s sculpture, titled 2 X 4 Landscape, is made from standard pieces of lumber, carefully arranged. I can imagine Lin working on this piece, how she methodically placed each block, one after the other, building up a topography, like layers of meaning. The sculpture rises to form a gentle hill, an artificial landscape made from manufactured materials. The individual pieces of wood retain their identity, their rectangular shapes creating a grid-like texture across the surface. It makes me think of Agnes Martin's grids but in three-dimensional space. I think Lin wants us to consider our relationship with nature and how we shape and manipulate it. There is an incredible tension between the natural and the artificial here; the warm tones of the wood invoke feelings of nature and warmth but the materials are industrially produced and man-made. Like many artists, she is playing with the constant exchange of ideas. She's opening up a space of imagination for us, questioning how we see the world and how we make meaning.