VOA慢速英语2009-EXPLORATIONS - Maya Lin's Works Are Her Answer t

VOICE ONE:

I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Faith Lapidus with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the work of the American artist and building designer Maya Lin. She is best known for designing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. which was completed in nineteen eighty-two. Throughout her career, Lin's monuments, buildings, and sculptures have been influenced by the natural world.

Her art also expresses her interest in environmental activism. This spring, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. opened an exhibit called "Systematic¹ Landscapes." This interesting show features some of Maya Lin's recent works.

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VOICE ONE:
　
Maya Lin's 2006 work "2 x 4 Landscape"

The first large sculpture that greets visitors to the exhibit "Systematic Landscapes" is very surprising. A huge form that looks like a hill or wave takes up an entire room of the museum. The work is called "2 x 4 Landscape." It is made of more than fifty thousand pieces of cut blocks of wood. The highest point of the softly curved hill measures about three meters tall, while the lowest point is only a few centimeters thick. Visitors can explore the work from three sides. The sculpture looks like it would be fun to walk on.

VOICE TWO:

At first it might seem very unusual to see a natural form like a hill inside a museum. But this surprise is part of Maya Lin's aim. Her work explores how people experience landscape in a time of increased technological² influence and environmental awareness³.

VOICE ONE:

"Water Line" is another sculpture that takes up an entire room. It is a line drawing made out of aluminum⁴ wire that looks like a wavy⁵ net floating in mid-air. The lines represent a mountainous underwater area in the Atlantic Ocean.

Maya Lin worked with ocean scientists to develop a three dimensional image of this part of the ocean. Then, she recreated that image in a smaller sculptural form. The very top of the wire drawing represents the only part of the ocean landscape that can be seen on the surface of the water: It is Bouvet Island, one of the most isolated⁶ islands in the world.

VOICE TWO:
　
A detail of one of Maya Lin's "Atlas⁷ Landscapes"

But not all of Lin's sculptures are huge. In one room, visitors can see a series of works called "Atlas Landscapes". For this series, Maya Lin turned a series of map books into sculptures. She carefully cut into each page of the book to create small canyons⁸ and formations.

Her series called "Bodies of Water" is like an artistic⁹ geography lesson. These works are also about unseen underwater landscapes. Maya Lin cut out the shapes of three bodies of water using thin layers of wood.

One work is done in the shape of the Caspian Sea, another in the shape of the Black Sea, and the third takes the form of the Red Sea. The many layers of wood in each sculpture become thinner towards its base, or the area that relates to the deepest part of the sea.

Another series called "Fractured¹⁰ Landscapes" looks like drawings of rivers and streams. But these drawings were made by pressing paper against broken sheets of glass covered in ink.

Maya Lin has also made a sculpture for the United States Embassy¹¹ in Beijing, China. Her "Pin River-Yangtze" is made of about thirty thousand small metal pins stuck into the wall. The many pins take the shape of one of the longest rivers in the world.

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VOICE ONE:
　
Maya Lin

Maya Lin was born in Athens, Ohio in nineteen fifty-nine. Her parents had each fled China in the late nineteen forties. They met and married while living in the United States. Later, both parents taught at Ohio University. Her mother, Julia, was a literature professor. Her father, Henry, was a ceramist, an artist who makes objects out of clay. As a child, Maya would play with clay in her father's studio. She was also influenced by the wooded hills near her home as well as by local Native American burial hills.

VOICE TWO:

Maya Lin studied building design at Yale University in New Haven¹², Connecticut. At the age of twenty-one, she won a national contest to design the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Her design was very different from other war memorials. It was very modern, simple, and expressive¹³. Her design is made up of two long black granite¹⁴ pieces that meet at an angle. The wall is set below ground level. Cut into the wall are the names of the more than fifty-eight thousand Americans dead or missing in the Vietnam War. Maya Lin purposely called for the granite to be shiny. Visitors experience a link with the monument by seeing their reflection in the stone.

VOICE ONE:
　
A view from the air of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Maya Lin has said that death is a private and personal matter. She says this monument is a quiet place for people to come to terms with loss caused by the war. Many people had criticized early plans for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. They thought it was not heroic. But once it was built, family members of the dead, Vietnam veterans, and the general public accepted its beauty and strong emotion. The memorial has become one of the most visited places in Washington.

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VOICE TWO:

Maya Lin has designed many other memorials. These structures combine elements of nature such as earth and water with written language to express meaning. Her Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama was completed in nineteen eighty-nine. The black granite sculpture has a circular surface like a table. A thin layer of water runs over this surface. It is cut with a list of important events marking the civil rights movement of the nineteen sixties.

VOICE ONE:

Lin made another "water table" sculpture out of green granite for an outdoor area at Yale University. The surface is cut with numbers representing how many women attended Yale through history. Completed in nineteen ninety-three, the sculpture honors the many women who have studied there.

Maya Lin has said that her work exists on the boundaries -- somewhere between science and art, art and architecture, public and private, east and west. She says that she is always trying to find a balance between these opposing forces to find a place where opposites meet.

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VOICE TWO:
　
The Children's Defense¹⁵ Fund hired Maya Lin to design this religious center in Tennessee

Maya Lin has also designed many buildings. In nineteen ninety-nine, the Children's Defense Fund hired her to build a library on a farm it owns in the state of Tennessee. By modernizing¹⁶ an old farm building, she skillfully combined old and new building traditions. She also created an environmentally friendly design. This organization later hired Miz Lin to design its religious center. The building looks like an artist's version of a wooden boat.

Maya Lin also designed a private home known as "The Box House" in Telluride, Colorado. Her aim was to make as simplified a form as possible -- a wooden box. This very modern building was made to give its owners a beautiful view of the nearby forest and mountains.

VOICE ONE:

Maya Lin's "Ecliptic" outdoor area in Grand Rapids, Michigan features water in its three states: liquid, gas and solid. The park has two fountains, one with flowing water and another that releases a fine mist. An ice skating rink has lights built into the floor. The small lights make up the exact pattern of stars in the sky on the day the park opened in two thousand one.

VOICE TWO:

Lin's design for the new Museum of Chinese in America building in New York City is to open this summer. She has said that the design for the building is modern. But the inside space of the museum will have links to traditional Chinese architecture. She says that this is the first building she has worked on that is related to the subject of China. Lin says this project means a great deal to her. And she says it is important to her that her two daughters know about that part of their background.

VOICE ONE:

One of Maya Lin's most recent memorials, "What is Missing?", is to be completed later this year. The project rejects the idea of memorials as a single unmoving object. This memorial will exist in several different places and forms at the same time. The aim of "What is Missing?" is to bring attention to the number of animals and places that have either disappeared or will disappear in our lifetime. The memorial is to exist as a video project, a Web site and as a book.

VOICE TWO:

Maya Lin has said that she does not believe that anything she creates can compare to the beauty of the natural world. But she says her works are her answer to that beauty. Visitors who see her work can enjoy experiencing both the beauty of art and the natural environment.

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VOICE ONE:

This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Faith Lapidus. To see pictures of Maya Lin's work, visit our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

1 systematic   

adj.有系统的，有计划的，有方法的

参考例句：

• The way he works isn't very systematic.他的工作不是很有条理。
• The teacher made a systematic work of teaching.这个教师进行系统的教学工作。

2 technological   

adj.技术的；工艺的

参考例句：

• A successful company must keep up with the pace of technological change.一家成功的公司必须得跟上技术变革的步伐。
• Today,the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements.当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。

3 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

4 aluminum   

n.(aluminium)铝

参考例句：

• The aluminum sheets cannot be too much thicker than 0.04 inches.铝板厚度不能超过0.04英寸。
• During the launch phase,it would ride in a protective aluminum shell.在发射阶段，它盛在一只保护的铝壳里。

5 wavy   

adj.有波浪的，多浪的，波浪状的，波动的，不稳定的

参考例句：

• She drew a wavy line under the word.她在这个词的下面画了一条波纹线。
• His wavy hair was too long and flopped just beneath his brow.他的波浪式头发太长了，正好垂在他的眉毛下。

6 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

7 atlas   

n.地图册，图表集

参考例句：

• He reached down the atlas from the top shelf.他从书架顶层取下地图集。
• The atlas contains forty maps,including three of Great Britain.这本地图集有40幅地图，其中包括3幅英国地图。

8 canyons   

n.峡谷( canyon的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This mountain range has many high peaks and deep canyons. 这条山脉有许多高峰和深谷。 来自辞典例句
• Do you use canyons or do we preserve them all? 是使用峡谷呢还是全封闭保存？ 来自互联网

9 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。

10 fractured   

adj. 断裂的 动词fracture的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He died in the car collision with his skull fractured. 他在那次撞车事件中因头骨碎裂而死去。
• He fell from a tree and his leg fractured in three places. 他从树上掉下来，腿三处骨折。

11 embassy   

n.大使馆，大使及其随员

参考例句：

• Large crowd demonstrated outside the British Embassy.很多群众在英国大使馆外面示威。
• He's a U.S. diplomat assigned to the embassy in London.他是美国驻伦敦大使馆的一名外交官。

12 haven   

n.安全的地方，避难所，庇护所

参考例句：

• It's a real haven at the end of a busy working day.忙碌了一整天后，这真是一个安乐窝。
• The school library is a little haven of peace and quiet.学校的图书馆是一个和平且安静的小避风港。

13 expressive   

adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的

参考例句：

• Black English can be more expressive than standard English.黑人所使用的英语可能比正式英语更有表现力。
• He had a mobile,expressive,animated face.他有一张多变的，富于表情的，生动活泼的脸。

14 granite   

adj.花岗岩，花岗石

参考例句：

• They squared a block of granite.他们把一块花岗岩加工成四方形。
• The granite overlies the older rocks.花岗岩躺在磨损的岩石上面。

15 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

16 modernizing   

使现代化，使适应现代需要( modernize的现在分词 )； 现代化，使用现代方法

参考例句：

• Modernizing a business to increase its profitability and competitiveness is a complicated affair. 使企业现代化，从而达到增加利润，增强竞争力的目的，是一件复杂的事情。
• The young engineer had a large share in modernizing the factory. 这位年轻工程师在工厂现代化的过程中尽了很大的“力”。