Maya Ying Lin and Rachel Whiteread Essay Example

an innovative black granite wall shaped like a V. Lin's objective was to construct a memorial at ground level that would allow visitors to connect with the emotions evoked by war and experience a sense of enclosure.

Maya Lin's memorial design for the war elicited attention from observers as she crossed around the wall. However, her design faced objections and controversies, leading to heated debates. The jury was against the arrangement of the memorial and noted its difference from the Lincoln and Washington Memorials. Some opponents viewed the sunken wall as a symbol of Lin underestimating the war. Concerns were also raised about the black color of the wall, as opponents saw it as a representation of shame, humiliation, poverty, and grief in various races and societies. In a separate memorial project, Rachel Whiteread was selected to create a tribute to the 65,000 Austrian Jews who perished in the Holocaust during World War II.

The Holocaust memorial, named for the tangible block with non-opening doorknobs, takes the form of two doors and numerous books on shelves. The books symbolize the oppressed Jewish people during the Nazi regime. Rachel's intention was to create a memorial that would honor and convey both pride and inspiration, serving as a means of communication with the past. Due to objections to her design, the project was postponed until 2000.

The main objection raised was the harshness of the hundreds of blocks planted in Baroque square, as well as their contrasting design compared to the White Memorials. Criticism also focused on the monument's beauty, with some arguing that it should not be as aesthetically pleasing considering its purpose to evoke the brutality and tragedy

of the Holocaust.