Black Art

Black Art
What’s my reason for this title? It’s simple, Maya Lin’s art was black, so were the directors’ intentions on this documentary. Throughout of the entire documentary, when Maya Lin was being interviewed, she was in her room (assuming that it was her room) and it was dark with little light from the outside. Compared to McNamara in Fog of War, McNamara was talking directly into the camera, but in the light. He portrayed and kept up with Maya’s ideal intentions of the Vietnam War memorial very well because he played with the black theme/concept and played with her words through the technicality of filming making. When the others were being interviewed, they were in the light, probably to a difference in mood and feelings. Every time Maya was being interviewed I felt a sense of seriousness and meaning because her voice was non-playful. Every time she spoke I felt like she had something very important to say just by her choice of words and how she spoke them. Many of Maya Lin’s work revolved around names, time, and choice of material. Another thing interesting that plays with the black theme is how Maya was shown working and drawing a lot, in the dark with little light. It’s pretty ironic because an artist usually needs light to see, and she was always designing or reading something with minimal lighting in the room. Proof that the director played with the black theme until the very end was at the very end, how everything took a while to fade into blackness, but it was fading nonetheless. The choice of choosing black as the color for the wall of the Vietnam War Memorial was interesting because of how it strong it was. I’ve been to the actual memorial myself. Although I wasn’t around when the Vietnam War happened, just looking at the names on the wall was breath-taking. I stood there on the sidewalks of the memorial, just thinking really deep about how I was looking at a persons’ name that served in the Vietnam War, and died. I had mixed feelings about the wall because at one point, I was extremely sad that I was looking at names of ones that passed away, but I felt patriotic because I felt honored that these soldiers sacrificed their lives for the country I live in. One thing that stood out to me when looking at the wall was that, I could see myself. This was extremely interesting to me because if you notice and take a look at the title, it says, “A Strong Clear Vision,” under Maya Lin. The wall was clear! I could see myself in the wall! It might sound silly but it makes so much sense when analyzing this because the wall has so much meaning to it. I hadn’t realized it until now because I see the two put together, the documentary and the actual wall. Although the documentary spoke of other designs Maya built, I felt that the Vietnam War Memorial was stressed the most in the documentary just because that’s what jump started her career as an architect. Even though other designs were mentioned, the setting was still the same; not so much light, dark, serious when Maya was presented/interviewed and just casual for the most part. I think the color black is portrayed very powerfully in this film because it could have so many deep meanings, one of which Maya said, “If we can't face death, we'll never overcome it. You have to look it straight in the eye. Then you can turn around and walk back out into the light.” Looking into the black wall, I saw death, I couldn’t believe the amount of deaths there were, but I see and feel the truth to it, those looking into the wall, had to come to the realization of death.