Ecliptic, 2001
Concrete
Monroe NW and Monroe Center
(on Rosa Parks Circle, adjacent to
the site of the new art museum)
Maya Lin is best known for her monumental public sculpture, the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial (1981-82) in Washington D.C. Created as a class project when she was an architecture student at Yale University, the work catapulted the young artist into the national spotlight and instantaneous fame. Since then she has created numerous large scale site-specific works. Always concerned with natural elements in her works, Ecliptic on Rosa Parks Circle is the culmination of Lin's survey of Grand Rapids and references the community's association with water.
A sculpture within a public park, Rosa Parks Circle consists of three distinct areas evoking the differing states of water: liquid, solid, and vapor. At the heart of the park is Ecliptic, a 13,000 square-foot oval amphitheater that converts into an ice skating rink during the winter months. Embedded in the structure's floor are 166 fiber-optic lights that shine through the ice at night. The lights are patterned after the midnight sky over Michigan on January 1, 2000. The park's two other components include a small, tree enclosed reflecting pool and a secondary pool emitting water vapor.
A sculpture within a public park, Rosa Parks Circle consists of three distinct areas evoking the differing states of water: liquid, solid, and vapor. At the heart of the park is Ecliptic, a 13,000 square-foot oval amphitheater that converts into an ice skating rink during the winter months. Embedded in the structure's floor are 166 fiber-optic lights that shine through the ice at night. The lights are patterned after the midnight sky over Michigan on January 1, 2000. The park's two other components include a small, tree enclosed reflecting pool and a secondary pool emitting water vapor.
