Past Exhibition

Maya Lin: Ghost Forest

May 10 – November 14, 2021

Play Audio Tour

Past Exhibition

Maya Lin: Ghost Forest

May 10 – November 14, 2021

Play Audio Tour

Maya Lin’s Ghost Forest, a towering stand of forty-nine haunting Atlantic white cedar trees, is a newly-commissioned public art work. Lin brings her vision as an artist and her agency as an environmental activist to this project, a memory of germination, vegetation, and abundance and a harsh symbol of the devastation of climate change. The height of each tree, around forty feet, overwhelms human scale and stands as a metaphor of the outsized impact of a looming environmental calamity.

In nature, a ghost forest is the evidence of a dead woodland that was once vibrant. Atlantic white cedar populations on the East Coast are endangered by past logging practices and threats from climate change, including extreme weather events that yield salt water intrusion, wind events, and fire. The trees in Ghost Forest were all slated to be cleared as part of regeneration efforts in the fragile ecosystem of the Pine Barrens of New Jersey.

The magnitude of planetary vulnerability is a significant subject in Lin’s practice through sculpture, installation, and her web-based resource, What Is Missing?. Now two generations removed from the Earthwork artists of the 1960s and 1970s, Lin is taking on rural and urban outdoor space with a focus on geology and the fragility of the earth’s ecosystem.

Lin created Ghost Forest Soundscape highlighting the sounds of some of the native species of animals once common to Manhattan. To listen, click the audio button to the left or view the accompanying text and credits here. It draws from the Macaulay Library sound archive of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. A series of public programs focused on nature-based solutions to climate change, including planting 1,000 trees and shrubs in collaboration with Natural Areas Conservancy, are planned throughout the run of the exhibition.

About the artist

Maya Lin (American, b. 1959) was born in Athens, Ohio, and lives and works in New York and Colorado. She earned BA and MA degrees in architecture from Yale University (1981,1986).

She is internationally recognized for a practice that encompasses large-scale environmental installations, architectural projects, and memorials, as well as intimate studio artworks. Lin received many prestigious awards, including Rome Prize (1999), Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement (2000), National Medal of Arts (2009), and Presidential Medal of Freedom (2016). Her website, What Is Missing?, brings awareness to the climate crisis and decreasing biodiversity. The artist’s works are included in the collections of Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Des Moines Art Center; Indianapolis Museum of Art; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, NY; and The Wanås Foundation, Knislinge, Sweden.

Read more about the artist
Exhibition Catalogue

Maya Lin: Ghost Forest

Download PDF

Download PDF
Press Release

Download PDF

Download PDF
About the artist

Maya Lin (American, b. 1959) was born in Athens, Ohio, and lives and works in New York and Colorado. She earned BA and MA degrees in architecture from Yale University (1981,1986).

She is internationally recognized for a practice that encompasses large-scale environmental installations, architectural projects, and memorials, as well as intimate studio artworks. Lin received many prestigious awards, including Rome Prize (1999), Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement (2000), National Medal of Arts (2009), and Presidential Medal of Freedom (2016). Her website, What Is Missing?, brings awareness to the climate crisis and decreasing biodiversity. The artist’s works are included in the collections of Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Des Moines Art Center; Indianapolis Museum of Art; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, NY; and The Wanås Foundation, Knislinge, Sweden.

Read more about the artist

About the artist

Maya Lin (American, b. 1959) was born in Athens, Ohio, and lives and works in New York and Colorado. She earned BA and MA degrees in architecture from Yale University (1981,1986).

She is internationally recognized for a practice that encompasses large-scale environmental installations, architectural projects, and memorials, as well as intimate studio artworks. Lin received many prestigious awards, including Rome Prize (1999), Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement (2000), National Medal of Arts (2009), and Presidential Medal of Freedom (2016). Her website, What Is Missing?, brings awareness to the climate crisis and decreasing biodiversity. The artist’s works are included in the collections of Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Des Moines Art Center; Indianapolis Museum of Art; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, NY; and The Wanås Foundation, Knislinge, Sweden.

Read more about the artist
Exhibition Catalogue

Maya Lin: Ghost Forest

Download PDF

Download PDF
Press Release

Download PDF

Download PDF
About the artist

Maya Lin (American, b. 1959) was born in Athens, Ohio, and lives and works in New York and Colorado. She earned BA and MA degrees in architecture from Yale University (1981,1986).

She is internationally recognized for a practice that encompasses large-scale environmental installations, architectural projects, and memorials, as well as intimate studio artworks. Lin received many prestigious awards, including Rome Prize (1999), Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement (2000), National Medal of Arts (2009), and Presidential Medal of Freedom (2016). Her website, What Is Missing?, brings awareness to the climate crisis and decreasing biodiversity. The artist’s works are included in the collections of Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Des Moines Art Center; Indianapolis Museum of Art; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, NY; and The Wanås Foundation, Knislinge, Sweden.

Read more about the artist

Image gallery

Andy Romer Copy Of MSPC SpringViews 042021 0213

Photo: Maya Lin Studio
Photo: Andy Romer
Photo: Andy Romer
Photo: Andy Romer
Photo: Andy Romer
Photo: Andy Romer
Photo: Andy Romer
Photo: Andy Romer
Photo: Andy Romer

Exhibition Support

Ghost Forest is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Leadership support for this exhibition is generously provided by The Ruth Stanton Foundation. Major support for the exhibition is generously provided by Agnes Gund, Amazon, Bloomberg Philanthropies, The Ronald and Jo Carole Lauder Foundation, and Pace Gallery. Substantial support is provided by the Ford Foundation, the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation, The Scintilla Foundation, Marders, Con Edison, and the Henry Moore Foundation. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology kindly provided material, expertise, and editing support for the soundscape. Madison Square Park Conservancy acknowledges the generous contributions of Colin McLaughlin, Advanced Forestry Solutions and Bob Williams, Pine Creek Forestry.

Support for the exhibition catalogue is generously provided by the James Howell Foundation.

Ghost Forest is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.

Major support for the art program is provided by Sasha C. Bass, Bunny and Charles Burson, Toby Devan Lewis, Ronald A. Pizzuti, Thornton Tomasetti, Tiffany & Co., Anonymous, and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council. Substantial support is provided by Charina Endowment Fund, Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, The Sol LeWitt Fund for Artist Work, Madison Square Park Conservancy Art Council, Audrey and Danny Meyer, and The Rudin Family. Additional support is provided by 400 Park Avenue South, The Brown Foundation, Inc., of Houston, Irving Harris Foundation, Lenore G. Tawney Foundation, and Fern and Lenard Tessler.

Madison Square Park Conservancy is a public/private partnership with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation.

Maya Lin and Madison Square Park Conservancy recognize the efforts of those involved in Ghost Forest Soundscape.

John Fitzpatrick and Mathew Meddler, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, who compiled the species sound recordings.

Jim Rementer who provided access to the archival recordings from the Lenape Talking Dictionary of the voices of Lucy Blalock, Nora Dean, and Leonard Thompson for the animal names in Unami.

Actors Emily Mortimer and Alessandro Nivola who kindly lent their voices to the scientific and common names of each species.

Brooke Kamin Rapaport of Madison Square Park Conservancy, who lent her voice to the introduction and concluding sound attributions and land acknowledgement statement.

Maalish Molly Miller of the Stockbridge-Munsee community who lent her voice to select animal names in Munsee (Lenaapeew.)

Heather Bruegl, Stockbridge-Munsee community, who helped in the effort.

Joe Baker and The Lenape Center in New York for helping to guide the land acknowledgment statement.

Ives Goddard for guidance throughout and who helped to locate the Munsee (Lunaapeew) names of some of these species.

Eric Sanderson whose knowledge about the island of Manhattan and his book, Mannahatta, has proven a wonderful source.

Seth Rothschild of Little Recordings who orchestrated the soundscape.

Maya Lin: Ghost Forest

Maya Lin: Ghost Forest

Maya Lin: Ghost Forest

Exhibition Support

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