IN 2021, ARTIST, ARCHITECT, and environmental activist Maya Lin brought fifty Atlantic white cedar trees to Madison Square Park in New York City, a stunning examination of planetary scale and vulnerability. She recently launched an offshoot of that project: Ghost Forest Seedlings, a counterpart zoomed in to the organic growth patterns of a living, subterranean network of tree roots.
The works produced for Ghost Forest Seedlings depict groups of seeds that grow into intricate root patterns. Each of the 500 unique works from the project will three components: a signed 23” x 23” print of the final root system; a generative NFT that shows the seedling’s evolution in real time; and a video timelapse tracing the seedling’s complete growth pattern.
Produced by Pace Verso in collaboration with the art studio E.A.T_WORKS and technical development partners NearForm, the works are available for purchase at verso.pacegallery.com.
We recently spoke with Maya about her affinity for root networks and the challenge of creating organic material in a digital space.
Orion: With this project you’ve tasked yourself with creating a digital root network. What first drew you to that concept?
Maya Lin: I was interested in revealing the intricate and complex root structure of trees as a way to emphasize how the soil and the living systems it supports become a major force to absorb climate change emissions. I was also very interested in trying to capture a natural growth pattern. With a plant or a seed, you have no idea how it’s going to grow. I was fascinated by that organic growth and how it could be achieved algorithmically. We experimented with different kinds of restraints, or parameters, throughout the process and purposefully added in variability at every stage of the growth pattern. That was part of the excitement for me. I don’t want to know how they’re going to turn out. That’s the whole point.
O: The project speaks to your ‘interest in depictions of organic as opposed to fractal and geometric patterns in computer generated art.’ How do you define ‘organic’ here?
ML: The generative art that I had seen most often with other NFT projects was based on fractals. In other words, everything was repetitive, symmetrical and geometric in growth – they appeared more inorganic than organic. As we were developing the code for this project, we studied L-systems: designed by Aristid Lindenmayer to model the growth of biological systems. The early iterations of code felt a little too mathematically derived. I created hand-drawn animations to achieve a more organic feel, inspiring the lacelike and less fractal algorithm that we ended up using for this project.
O: You’ve titled this project Ghost Forest Seedlings, referring to Ghost Forest, your installation of Atlantic white cedar trees in Madison Square Park. If physical seedlings become physical trees, then what do these digital seedlings grow into? How does the digital root network manifest on the surface level?
ML: As we were de-installing Ghost Forest, it really got me thinking about the secret life of trees. I do not like doing temporary works, and I wanted to explore something more permanent. What was missing from the fifty dead cedar trees in Madison Square Park? Their root structures. I wanted to think about this project as something that would extend the life of Ghost Forest and explore the incredible importance of the soil and the complex underground root structures that are invisible to us.
O: Much of the beauty of Ghost Forest was, to me, the shared experience of it. I loved witnessing others interact with it and found the communal engagement to be inextricable from its meaning. NFTs, however, seem to be designed for the promise of individual ownership. What does it mean to you for your work to be owned?
ML: I have, for the most part, created permanent site-specific works. Ghost Forest, the installation, is one of the few temporary art installations I have done. I was intrigued by extending the work into a more permanent realm and yet again was drawn to the temporal nature of a generative artwork. I also am very drawn to exploring a work that exists in three states — like with water, having a solid, liquid and vapor. For seedlings, those three states translated into a physical print, a video of the growth and as the online component as part of the virtual world. It gives a new and extended life to Ghost Forest.
O: Proceeds from the sales will be donated to What Is Missing. Could you tell us more about your connection with them?
ML: Ghost Forest focused attention on the effects of climate change and also emphasized nature-based solutions to climate change. It was both an art installation of mine and was also linked to What is Missing, a non-profit foundation I created to raise awareness about the sixth mass extinction of species, connecting this loss of species to a main cause: habitat degradation and loss. It emphasizes preventing and restoring habitats as well as reforming our agricultural, ranching, and forestry practices, which can both reduce emissions and restore and protect biodiversity. I have chosen to donate all my profits to help fund this project.
one of 500 unique artworks, 2023
© Maya Lin, courtesy Pace Verso and E.A.T_WORKS
one of 500 unique artworks, 2023
© Maya Lin, courtesy Pace Verso and E.A.T_WORKS
one of 500 unique artworks, 2023
© Maya Lin, courtesy Pace Verso and E.A.T_WORKS
one of 500 unique artworks, 2023
© Maya Lin, courtesy Pace Verso and E.A.T_WORKS
one of 500 unique artworks, 2023
© Maya Lin, courtesy Pace Verso and E.A.T_WORKS
one of 500 unique artworks, 2023
© Maya Lin, courtesy Pace Verso and E.A.T_WORKS
540 West 25th Street, New York, NY 10001
September 19 – 30, 2023
Photography courtesy Pace Gallery