Chapter 3: Vietnam War Memorial Wall

   In this, and the following blog posts, I am going to use concepts that I've learned in our course and the relevant chapters of our text to describe representative artworks. The "Vietnam War Memorial Wall" is the three-dimensional, non-representational art work that most captured my attention in this chapter. Probably, because of the personal connection with our family. Two of my Dad's cousins died as a result of the Vietnam War. One in 1967 and the other in 1969. I have never seen the actual "wall" or its travelling scale-model copy. I have heard the "copy" has been in Brandon on several occasions. I think I would feel very strange, seeing my last name on it. Anyway, I am also attracted to it because of the choices the artist, Maya Ying Lin, made in designing it. For example, its simple geometric design in contrast to the more elaborate Iwo Jima Memorial that represents a different war and is located in the same general area. This more recent memorial, descends gravelike and below "earth level in a giant V" of polished granite. It is a sedate, funerary black in color. The names of the approximately 58,000 men and women are inscribed in its mirror-like surface, in the order in which they died. The artist uses this technique to "reflect" how many lives were sacrificed.  At the same time, the linear perspective seems to go vanishing points in either direction. Maybe, the artist's intention was to suggest how unsatisfying this war's outcome was. To me the slope down to the "V", suggests how easy it is to get into a war. The slope up, in my mind, makes us realize how hard it is to get out of such a conflict. The granite surface allows rubbings to be made of the names of fallen loved ones. Which is great idea regardless of the artist's original intentions. (Because the living can take home a memory and possibly some solace from their visit.)  Another question  occurred to me was: "Did Maya Lin pick a "V" shape to suggest anything?"Is it the letter "V" as in Vietnam? Does it stand for "valor"? Victims? I do not know, however, I really appreciate her artistic decisions. One day, I hope to visit this memorial and make a rubbing to honor our "fallen" family members. In short, I like this remarkably "interactive" work of art.