© Gibbs Farm 2013
Encompassing approximately 30,000 square metres, “A Fold in the Field” is Maya Lin’s largest and most ambitious earthwork to date. It is Lin’s first earthwork depicting folds in the earth of which there are five in total, the highest of which gently rises to 11.5 metres.
Set on a flat plain, the folds emerge and billow from the terrain, the slopes determined with The Farms wildlife in mind, permitting the sheep to graze the slopes and keep the grass the appropriate length. This is consistent with her large-scale environmental artworks, and the artist’s interest in how one experiences and relates to the landscape. Lin’s five folds make dramatic new wave forms in the flattest and lowest section of the Farm: the coastal flats.
Creating five undulations in this location, Lin’s work both echoes the waves of westerly weather that shape the coastline, and the slow, inevitable gravitational slide of the land down slopes and valleys towards the sea. By sculpting the earth and altering its surface appearance in this way, Lin’s work enables us to relate to the forces both within and upon the land.
Maya Lin (b. 1959, Athens Ohio) has pursued two parallel careers as artist and architect, both of which have won her international acclaim. She became internationally recognised while still a senior student at Yale University when she won a national competition for a Vietnam Veterans Memorial to be built in Washington, DC.
Lin’s memorial, though controversial at the time has become a benchmark for both memorial architecture and land art. She has served as an advisor on sustainable energy use, and as a Board Member of the USA National Resources Defence Council.
She was also a member of the jury that selected the design of the World Trade Centre Site Memorial in New York City. In 2009, Maya Lin was awarded the National Medal of Arts by US President Barack Obama. Maya Lin lives and works in New York City.
A Fold in the Field
2013
105,000 cu. m earth-fill covering ca.30,000 sq. m (3 ha.)

Maya Lin

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