,--------~-----~ - ---- -
MONUMENT OR FOLLY? MAYA LIN'S BIRD BLIND AT THE
SANDY RIVER DELTA, OREGON
(2006, CONFLUENCE PROJECT)
by
KRISTINE M. KAEDING
A THESIS
Submitted to the Department of Art History
and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
Master of Arts
September 2010
"Monument or Folly? Maya Lin's Bird Blind at the Sandy River Delta, Oregon (2006,
Confluence Project)," a thesis prepared by Kristine M. Kaeding in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the Master of Arts degree in the Department of Art History. This
thesis has been approved and accepted by:
Dr. te Mon loch, ChaIr
ii
Committee in Charge:
Accepted by:
Dr. Kate Mondloch
Dr. Leland Roth
Prof. Kenneth Helphand
Dean of the Graduate School
iii
An Abstract of the Thesis of
Kristine M. Kaeding for the degree of
in the Department of Art History to be taken
Master of Arts
September 2010
Title: MONUMENT OR FOLLY? MAYA LIN'S BIRD BLIND AT THE SANDY
RIVER DELI'A, OREGON (2006, CONFLUENCE PROJECT)
Approved:
Dr. Kate Mondloch
In 2000, a non-profit organization, the Confluence Project, based in Vancouver,
Washington commissioned Maya Lin to design seven site-specific art installations. Lin
chose certain points along the Columbia River to commemorate the bicentennial of the
Corps ofDiscovery, the Lewis and Clark Expedition. I will focus on the third completed
site, Bird Blind, located at the Sandy River Delta in Troutdale, Oregon. This artwork is a
functional piece for viewing the surrounding wildlife in addition to a textually
informative work referencing the diaries ofLewis and Clark and includes the current
species status report published by the Sierra Club on the animals observed by Lewis and
Clark. This thesis examines the accessibility of the artwork to the wide variety of
audiences and its success as a point of dialogue for its specific site.
iv
CURRlCULUM VITAE
NAME OF AUTHOR: Kristine M. Kaeding
PLACE OF BIRTH: Tacoma, Washington
DATE OF BIRTH: April 7,1977
GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED:
University of Oregon, Eugene
Eastern Washington University, Cheney
DEGREES AWARDED:
Master of Arts, Art History, 2010, University of Oregon
Bachelor of Arts, Art History, 2007, Eastern Washington University
AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST:
Contemporary Art and Theory
Art in the Land, Northwest American Art
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:
Teaching assistant, Department of Art History, University of Oregon, Eugene, 2008-2010
ArtsBridge Scholar, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon, Eugene,
2010
vResearch assistant, Department of Art History, University of Oregon, Eugene, 2008
Student Director ASEWU Gallery, Eastern Washington University, Cheney, 2005-2007
Assistant to the Director, Gallery of Art, Eastern Washington University, Cheney, 2005­
2007
Curatorial Consultant, Graduate and Undergraduate Creative Works Symposium, Eastern
Washington University, 2006-2007
GRANTS, AWARDS, AND HONORS
Francis B. Huston Medal for service to the community, 2007
vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I thank Dr. Kate Mondloch, Dr. Leland Roth, and Prof. Kenneth Helphand for their
excellent guidance in this project. I also thank the Confluence Project for providing
integral interviews and vital documentation. Finally, I would like to thank Heather
Hanson for her help in my extensive editing process.
I dedicate this thesis to my father, Rick Kaeding, who always believes in me and
encourages me to challenge myself. Thank you, Dad, for taking me to the Systematic
Landscapes exhibition, buying me the exhibition catalogue, and our conversations on
Maya Lin's work. Because of that, I could write this.
vii
viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter Page
I. THE BEGINNING 1
II. THE HISTORy 16
III. THE WORK 33
IV. THE SITE 43
V. THE CONNECTION 52
VI. THE PICTURESQUE 61
VII. THE CONCLUSION 70
APPENDIX: IMAGES 75
BIBLIOGRAPHY 109
LIST OF IMAGES
Image Page
1. Bird Blind 75
2. Fish Cleaning Table and Dock 76
3. Viewing Plaiform 77
4. Amphitheater Trail and Cedar Circle 78
5. Boardwalk 79
6. Landbridge 80
7. Landbridge 81
8. Bird Blind 82
9. Trail to Bird Blind 83
10. Ramp into Bird Blind 84
11. Enclosure of Bird Blind 85
12. Trail to Bird Blind 86
13. Trails around Bird Blind 87
14. Sign posted at the entrance to the Bird Blind site 88
15. Trails to Bird Blind 89
16. Trails around Bird Blind 90
ix
Image Page
17. Trails beneath Bird Blind to river 91
18. Erosion at base ofBird Blind 92
19. View of slats with text 93
20. Composite photo of handrail 93
21. View through slats 94
22. Wasps' nest in enclosure 95
23. Site plan for Bird Blind 96
24. Maya Lin, Civil Rights Memorial 97
25. Detail of Civil Rights Memorial 98
26. Maya Lin, Yale Women's Table 99
27. Detail of Yale Women's Table .1 00
28. Maya Lin, Langston Hughes Library 101
29. Upstairs interior ofLangston Hughes Library .!02
30. Ground floor interior of Langston Hughes Library .!03
31. Dan Graham, Triangular Pavilion with Shoji Screen 104
32. Dan Graham, Empty Shoji Screen/Two-Way Mirror Pergola 105
33. Alan Sonfist, Circles ofTime .! 06
34. Aerial photo of Bird Blind Site 107
35. Blind Blind Site Diagram l08
x
I
CHAPTER I
THE BEGINNING
The bicentennial of the exploration of the Corps of Discovery's in 2005 sparked
interest for civic groups to commemorate the historical journey of Meriwether Lewis and
William Clark. One such effort, the Confluence Project, has raised enough money to
create a large-scale, regional commemoration with artworks commissioned by renowned
American artist, Maya Lin. There are and have been many ways to commemorate the
Corps ofDiscovery'sjoumey throughout the United States, but in the Pacific Northwest,
the Confluence Project with Lin is creating a series of site-specific artworks that address
this national event in a new way. Taking text directly from the diaries of Lewis and
Clark, Lin is combining them with local Native American stories to create integrated
structural artworks in the landscape that reference their specific place. One of these sites,
the Sandy River Delta, is home to the third completed artwork, installed in 2006, Bird
Blind (image 1). In my thesis, I will provide a comprehensive analysis ofthe Bird Blind
artwork in context of its site, the many layered histories that contribute to its site, and the
various sites that must be considered as part of the artwork's site-specificity, as one part
of the larger picture created with the Confluence Project sites.
2The Confluence Project is a non-profit group, based in Vancouver, Washington,
that seeks to commemorate the Journey of the Corps of Discovery, with seven site-
specific artwork installations at certain places along the Columbia River in Washington
and Oregon. I It began as a conversation one May afternoon in 1999 between Vancouver
community leaders, Jane Jacobsen and David DiCesare.2 At the time, Jacobsen was a
member ofthe Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commemorative Committee and DiCesare
managed the Fort Vancouver Historic Reserve? Instead ofthe proverbial male statues,
they wanted to see something of substance that spoke to the interconnectivity of the
various peoples within the Columbia River region, from past to present. At the same
time, Antone Minthorn, of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation,
was thinking the same. While watching the PBS program, "A Strong Clear Vision," a
special on the artwork of Maya Lin, he came to the conclusion that she was an artist who
could truly speak to the hearts of the tribes.4 Coincidentally, Lin was also Jacobsen and
DiCesare's artist of choice.
In 2000, Maya Lin's book, Boundaries, was being published. In her book, she
expresses an interest in developing a Last Memorial that would "focus on the most
important issue for [her] while growing up and to this day: the environment and man's
J Jane Jacobsen, Bob Friedman, and David DiCesare, Confluence Project, Vancouver, interviewed by the
author, Vancouver, Washington, 15 December 2009.
2 Author interview, 2009.
3 Sylvia Lindman, "Maya Lin and the Confluence Project" in Oregon Land: Oregon Chapter ofthe
American Society ofLandscape Architects (Spring 2005), p. 19.
4 Author interview, 2009.
3relationship to it."s While Lin envisioned her Last Memorial as an abstract global
concept, the Confluence Project was something real and present that spoke to her values,
to "teach us about the past in the hopes of creating a better future.,,6 Jacobsen and
DiCesare had little hope of commissioning Lin, because they did not know her and had
no indications that she would be interested in their project. However, a Google™ search
found a speech where Lin expressed interest in knowing what Lewis and Clark had seen
and how the land had changed over time. They immediately called David Nicandri, the
Director of the Washington State Historical Society, only to discover that Minthom had
spoken with him just days before, stating his belief that Lin should be the artist to
commission for a Lewis and Clark memorial.7 In June of 1999, the group that would
become the Confluence Project, including Minthom, met in the basement of the Howard
House in Vancouver, Washington.8
At this time, the members of the Confluence Project team numbered only a dozen
individual community leaders from all over Washington State. From the beginning,
Native American tribal representatives were part of the Confluence Project group and it
was those tribal members who originally brought up the name, Conjluence.9 In the pre­
settlement Pacific Northwest, travel by waterway was far easier and more efficient than
5 Maya Lin, Boundaries (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), 12:03.
6 Lin, 12:03.
7 Author interview, 2009.
8 The Howard House is a museum that also serves as the visitors' center for the city of Vancouver.
9 Author interview, 2009.
4by land, so the confluence of two rivers became important meeting sites. IO With this in
mind, the Confluence Project established the commission's primary intent: the
acknowledgement and preservation of true Pacific Northwest history. For them, this
meant the acknowledgement of Native American presence in the Northwest at the time of
Lewis and Clark's arrival.
After their first meeting in 1999, the Confluence Project team contacted Gary
Locke then Washington state governor. He is the first and only Chinese-American
governor ofa U.S. state outside of Hawaii. He was also a graduate of Yale University and
while there, he had met Maya Lin during the course of his studies. It was a full year
before Locke was persuaded to contact Lin. Meanwhile, the Confluence Project moved
forward in their commission with Lin. In January of 2000, they sent Lin a letter and a
package of natural items. They included feathers, rocks, and wood - items that physically
represented the land that Lin would be working with. "She needs something to touch,"
Jacobsen stated. They also included maps of the region in which Lin would be working.
In February, DiCesare visited her studio, but was unsuccessful in securing the
commission. II
In June 2000, one year after being petitioned by the Confluence Project, Governor
Locke called Lin to discuss their proposal. After speaking with Lin, he contacted
Jacobsen and told her that Lin was considering the project. In December of2000, in good
faith, a larger and more diverse Confluence Project group held a press conference
10 Robert H. Ruby and John A. Brown, Indians ofthe Pacific Northwest (Nonnan, OK: University of
Oklahoma Press, 1988),33.
11 Author interview, 2009.
5announcing their intentions. They had added several new members representing the tribes
of the region. However, Lin had not made any commitments to the project. In May 2001,
twelve members of the Confluence Project, which included both Euro-Americans and
Native Americans, went to visit Maya Lin. 12 "I said yes, when I realized who was
asking," states Lin in her press release. 13 For Lin, it was the coming together of both
Native and Euro-American cultures in commemoration that won her over.
In 2002, the Confluence Project opened their office with non-profit status and
Maya Lin came to visit the region for the first time for artistic research. 14 In the years that
followed, Lin would crisscross the state of Washington five timesY She visited each site
as they were chosen, initially for design inspiration and then as necessary during the
phases of construction.16 Currently, four of the seven sites are either under construction
or still in the design phase.
According to Jacobsen, the Confluence Project decided that each site chosen had
to meet three requirements. First, because of the community-minded motivation of the
project, the sites had to be on public land. Private land would be too difficult and
potentially too expensive to acquire. Land held by the state or federal government would
not need to be purchased, only a permit for the commemorative artwork would be
12 Author interview, 2009.
13 David Sarasohn, Waitingfor Lewis and Clark: The Bicentennial and the Changing West (Portland, OR:
Oregon Historical Press, 2005), 199.
14 Author interview, 2009.
15 Sarasohn, 119.
16 Author interview, 2009.
6required. Second, the sites all had to have some tribal significance. This means that each
site must be deemed as historically important according to local tribal representatives in
accordance with their traditions. Third, each site must be mentioned in the journals of
Lewis and Clark. 17
It is the second requirement that truly sets the Confluence Project apart from other
Lewis and Clark memorials; the Confluence Project seeks to firmly establish the land-
stewardship of Pacific Northwest Native Americans at the time of contact with the Corps
of Discovery. Using Lewis and Clark as a lens to view the civilizations of the Columbia
River region, the Confluence Project converges two cultures that have been traditionally
separated; they have successfully connected what is viewed as the Euro-American
present and the Native American past by visually and physically indicating the coming
together of these cultures. Lin commemorates each site with an artwork that references
the journey of the Corps of Discovery with references to Native American traditions and
stories in text.
My thesis will discuss one of these sites, the Bird Blind in Troutdale, Oregon, as a
site-specific work and the issues that arise from the placement of an architectural artwork
in a publically used space. As Miwon Kwon discusses in "One Place after Another," the
Bird Blind occupies a site that is a relatively minor place, meant to be rediscovered by the
dominant culture to "extract the social and historical dimensions" out of this place in
order serve the motivations of the Confluence ProjectY Although the Confluence Project
17 Author interview, 2009.
18 Miwon Kwon, One Place After Another: Site-Specific Art and Locational Identity (Cambridge, MA: The
MIT Press, 2002), 53.
7notes only one moment in one narrow reading of the site's history, I will identify the
various competing histories ofthe site to evaluate the effectiveness of the artwork in
connection with its site and its corresponding potential impact on the users of the space.
This an appropriate approach to the artwork, not just because it is site-specific, but also in
terms of the artist's motivation. Lin has stated that her work is always site-specific, "it is
not just the physical but the cultural context of a site that I look at.,,19 Consequently my
two main approaches in analysis of the Bird Blind artwork with derive from the land the
artwork is in and its history.
Much propaganda and many laudatory articles have created the media perception
of Lin's Bird Blind as a successful community coming-together and commemoration. The
artist, in general, has received little critical attention after enduring attacks for the
Vietnam War Veterans Memorial created in the early 1980s. An excellent example of this
is found in Peter Boswell's catalog to accompany Lin's first exhibition outside the United
States. It is a catalog of four essays, each written by a different scholar, however all
essays provide the same narrow reading of Lin's works, which directly follow Lin's artist
statements.20 This is problematic, primarily because it posits that there is one privileged
reading of the work. In the case of Lin's work, the privileged reading exists in a non-
political stasis, as if it is a serene placement of the object solely for aesthetic and
academic contemplation. In reality, every object placed in the public realm becomes part
ofthe living landscape in dialogue with users, pre-existing objects, and the terrain.
19 Maya Lin, Timetable: Maya Lin, 1 vols. (Stanford, CA: Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts,
2002),10.
20 Peter Boswell, Maya Lin: The American Academy in Rome (Electa: Milan, 1998).
8Lin's notoriety in combination with the Confluence Project's media promotion
has made the sites into tourist destinations. For example, Horizon Air™ featured an
article on Cape Disappointment in the August 2006 edition of their magazine.21 Lucy
Lippard discusses the phenomenon of tourism locales becoming sites of placelessness
due to the lack of variance in architectural forms and diluting of local culture into a
commodity, all in the hopes of making the traveler feel "away from it all" in as oasis of
pastiched nostalgia. This sort of art tourism contrasts with Lippard's definition because
the Confluence Project seeks to integrate the viewer into dialogue with the historic
landscape, rather than alienate the viewer from reality.12 So by contrast, the intention of
the Confluence Project sites is not to make the viewer feel away from it all, but rather
closer to the history and culture that has created the place they are visiting.
Currently there are no commercial plans for the Bird Blind site; therefore, it
appears that the Confluence Project seeks to present it informatively. However the
presentation of the site is biased toward the historical Lewis and Clark moment in the
context of the Native American tribal land usage. It is important to note that the site has
its own history and contemporary usage outside of the Confluence Project's narrow
vision, which I will bring to the forefront to provide a holistic vision that places the Bird
Blind artwork in a comprehensive context.
In 2005, the first site was dedicated at Cape Disappointment on the southwestern
comer of Washington for the bicentennial commemoration of the Corps of Discovery. It
21 April Christiansen, "Confluence of Cultures," Horizon Air (Aug 2006),5.
22 Lucy R. Lippard, The Lure ofthe Local: Sense ofPlace in a Multicentered Society (New York: The New
Press, 1997),66.
9is an elaborately composed site of several smaller sites within the state park. The main
artwork for this area is the Fish-Cleaning Table (image 2) near the boat launch.
Constructed from a basalt pillar, it is a functional piece that replaced the former metal
fish-cleaning table. The dock was added and the walkway to the dock was renovated as
part ofthe artwork. Fish cleaning has a ceremonial tradition for Native Americans and to
acknowledge this, Lin inscribed a nineteenth-century version ofthe Chinook Tribe's
origin myth in which man is created from the belly of a fish. 23
From the Fish-Cleaning Table, there is an oyster-shell pathway to the Viewing
Platform (image 3), an arched bench constructed on an arched platform, which looks out
onto Baker Bay. On the opposite side of the park, there is the Amphitheater Trail leading
to the Cedar Circle (image 4) and the Boardwalk (image 5). The Boardwalk is a text-
inscribed oyster-shell path that marks the journey of Lewis and Clark from St. Louis to
the point at which the viewer reaches the end of the path to Waikiki Beach, physically
synchronizing text and viewer. The Amphitheater Trail is also an oyster-shell path that
meanders past the curving cedar-benched amphitheater. This path terminates at the Cedar
Circle where six pieces of driftwood stand upright with visible steel supports positioned
around a large driftwood stump.
At Ridgefield, Washington, approximately one hundred miles east of Cape
Disappointment, Lin currently is designing a new research center for the Ridgefield
23 Confluence Project, "Overview of The Fish Cleaning Table," Confluence Journey Book [website];
available from http://journeybook.confluenceproject.org/#/site/cape-disappointmentlart-installations/fish­
cleaning-table/; Internet; accessed 24 April 2010.
10
Wildlife Refuge in conjunction with Washington State University.24 Two other sites still
under construction are Sacajawea and Chief Timothy State Parks in eastern Washington.
At Sacajawea State Park, the work is nearly completed on the seven Story Circles, in
which a ringed space made of basalt is inscribed with Native American stories that allow
the viewer to enter and direct the viewer to move from space to space.25 A Listening
Circle will be constructed at Chief Timothy State Park out of the rock of the island-park's
nature terrain, along with the restoration of native grasses and flowers to the site.26
At the Dalles in Oregon on the Columbia River, Lin will install the last work.
This commemorative artwork is still in the design phase and will pay homage to Celilo
Falls, the place where, for many hundreds of years before the darn, Native Americans
carne from all over the region to fish and reconnect with each other. The longest
continually occupied village in the Pacific Northwest was near the falls. Much of Oregon
and Washington's regional heritage was lost when the Dalles Darn was constructed in the
mid-1950s, submerging the falls and the village. Text inscribed on the cantilevered ramp,
24 Confluence Project, "Overview of Ridgefield," Confluence Journey Book [website]; available from
http://journeybookconfluenceproject.org/#/site/ridgefield/place/overview/; Internet; accessed 24 April
2010.
25 Confluence Project, "Overview of Sacajawea State Park," Confluence Journey Book [website]; available
from http://joumeybookconfluenceproject.org/#/site/sacajawea-state-park/place/overview/; Internet;
accessed 24 April 2010.
26 Confluence Project, "Overview of Chief Timothy State Park," Confluence Journey Book [website];
availabIe from http://journeybookconfluenceproject.org/#/site/chief-timothy-park/place/overview/;
Internet; accessed 24 April 2010.
--- ------- ----------
11
which will extend over the water's edge, will "chronicle the geological formation of the
falls, mythic origins, and tribal oral histories.,,27
In August of 2006, two sites near Portland, Oregon were completed: the
Vancouver, Washington Landbridge (images 6 and 7) and the Sandy River Delta,
Oregon, Bird Blind. Lin consulted on the Landbridge design; however Johnpaul Jones of
the Jones and Jones Architectural Firm in Seattle, Washington did the actual plans and
construction. It is the largest work of the Confluence Project and it is located in one of the
most difficult and controversial areas. Vancouver was one of the earliest settlements of
the Pacific Northwest, established by the Hudson Bay Company. The fort was built on a
hill not far from the river beach, where it has been reconstructed today as a museum.
Eventually transportation lines severed the fort from the beach, first with railroad tracks
and then with interstate 84. With his design, Jones "grabbed the prairie and pulled it over
the highway" as a way to reconnect Vancouver with its waterfront.28
The Landbridge is a nearly circular-shaped pedestrian and bicycle overpass. The
path is flanked, to either side, by native vegetation plantings and informative plaques.
There are three circular outlook points decorated with work by Native American artist
Lillian Pitt with the words translated into various Native American languages. Jones,
himself, is a Native American of the Cherokee-Choctaw.29 Part of the pathway is laid
27 Confluence Project, "Overview ofCelilo Park," Confluence Journey Book [website]; available from
hrtp://journeybook.confluenceproject.org/#/site/celilo-parkJplace/overview/; Internet; accessed 24 April
2010.
2& Clair Enlow, "Prairie Crossing" in Landscape Architecture 99:2 (Feb 2009), p. 90.
29 Jones & Jones Architecture, "Principals," People [website]; available from
http://www.jonesandjones.comlpeople/peopleyrincipals.html; Internet; accessed 24 April 2010.
12
with paving stones in a basket-weave pattern that runs through the circle-shape of the
bridge and is mimicked on the roof of the freeway underpass. An additional work by
Pittman is the entry gate that stands at the riverside entrance to the bridge.
The sister site to the Landbridge is the Bird Blind at the Sandy River Delta
(images 1,8-23), which was commemorated on the same day and lies approximately
twenty minutes east on the Oregon side of the Columbia River. The Bird Blind is an
elliptical shaped enclosure, about the size of a small room, with an arching ramp leading
from the gravel trail into the enclosure. The body of the Bird Blind is composed of two­
by-four inch wood slats, which tower above the viewer approximately two times the
average female height. The slats alternate with the same width space between, to allow
the viewer to observe the exterior wildlife, while being shielded from view. Steel
supports are used for the columns that raise the structure; for bands at the top, middle,
and bottom of the enclosure; and on the ramp, holding together the path, supporting the
handrail, and as wire barriers beneath it.
The land of the Sandy River Delta is owned by the United States Forest Service
and is part of the Mount Hood National Forest. It is currently undergoing a major
restoration process to replant native vegetation and revitalize the formerly naturally
occurring wetlands. Although the Confluence Project is primarily concerned with the
conservation of cultures, the environmental conservation efforts of the United States
Forest Service are in line with Maya Lin's personal and artist values, making this an ideal
site for her work.
13
The United States Forest Service acquired the land that composes the site from
Reynolds Aluminum in 1991; in 1997 they began their restoration process. It is a multi-
use public park of hiking trails, equestrian areas, an off-leash dog area, and fishing access
with the last two uses being the most influential to the area directly in and around the
Bird Blind. Although the title of the artwork, Bird Blind, assumes a hunting or bird
watching use, the placement of the slats makes it difficult to see out from the structure.
What does blind mean in this context? If blind in this context means being unable to see,
and if the usage around the artwork by dogs and fisherman scare away birds from the
surrounding trees, then does this monument become a landscape folly?30
As with most works by Lin, and all the works in the Confluence Project, there is
text to direct the viewer in moving through the work and to the artist's intention.
However in this case, there is a potential disjuncture between the site-specific
expectations given by the text on the handrail versus the species information for the entire
journey of the Corps of Discovery inscribed on the slats within the Bird Blind. As the
viewer ascends the ramp, the handrail text tells of what Captain Clark saw on this exact
spot in 1805, followed by an explanation of the commemoration of this structure at this
site by the tribes of the area. On the interior slats, the text cites every species noted by
Lewis and Clark from Missouri west and then back. After reading the text on the
handrail, it is logical to assume that the species information within the enclosure will also
30 I define monument as a structure that commemorates an event publically, having the vast majority
of visitors aware of the reason for the commemorations, either through visual devices within the
work or as part of the general public knowledge. Afolly is a structure, placed in a designed landscape
that could commemorate an event, however the commemoration is more obscure or personal to the
one creating the landscape and it functions as an integrated part of the landscape.
14
be site-specific, but it is not. The artwork requires that the viewer have additional
knowledge of the Journey of the Corps of Discovery, specifically the distance it covered
and in what timeframe. Without this outside information, the handrail and enclosure text,
taken together, are misleading.
What if the viewer neglects the text entirely? The difference between a folly and a
monument is almost entirely perception. If the viewer is dismissive of the text, then the
Confluence Project monument at the Sandy River Delta site becomes a landscape folly in
the restored delta landscape. Although the text is prominent, viewer dismissal of the text
is probable due to the audience it is currently visited by. This audience may not have
background historical knowledge, nor care to fully understand the meaning of the
enclosure text. However, as time passes, the Sandy River Delta site's audience may
change, and become a more informed audience, due to the promotion of the Confluence
Project sites as art tourism sites. I will evaluate all these possible access points to the
work to discuss its role as a part of the changing Sandy River Delta landscape.
To understand the deeper meaning behind the Bird Blind as a site-specific work,
in chapter two, "The History," I will discuss the history ofthe region where the artwork is
located through its role as one of seven sited works in the Confluence Project. I will
begin generally in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States and then narrow to
the larger Portland, Oregon/Vancouver, Washington area, with specific attention to the
Sandy River Basin. In chapter three, "The Work," I will discuss the Bird Blind artwork
specifically, focusing on materials, text, and user interaction. In chapter four, "The Site,"
in order to place the artwork in its site-specific context, I will discuss the particular
15
geographical issues of the site, the restoration efforts of the United States Forest Service,
and the maintenance responsibilities of the volunteer organizations that manage the site.
In chapter five, "The Connection," I will compare the Bird Blind to other contemporary
art works; that have inspired Lin, works similar in form and/or intention, and the artist's
larger oeuvre. In chapter six, "The Picturesque," I will give a brief history of Picturesque
landscape design and follies as a landscape architecture device. In this context, I will
evaluate the extent to which the Bird Blind adheres to these definitions. In my final
chapter, I will evaluate how the artwork brings all of these issues together in order to
examine Maya Lin's site-specific project, Bird Blind, in relationship to its site, history,
and use. I conclude that the artist successfully engages the Confluence Project's goal of
site commemoration by creating a work that negotiates a middle ground between the
roles of an architectural monument and architectural folly, while also remaining open­
ended and allowing for multiple interpretations.
16
CHATERII
THE HISTORY
One of the three requirements for each Confluence Project site is that the place
must be mentioned in the diaries ofLewis and Clark.3 ! However the region had its own
history before 1805. It is important to look at the larger regional historic picture in order
to gain a better understanding of the context in which the Bird Blind and its site are
placed. The Northwest region is diverse, but it is interconnected by the Columbia River
systems as the main source of water, food, travel, and energy. To understand the context
of the Sandy River Delta site, I will begin with the text that inspired the chosen site, then
move into the larger regional history of Euro-American discovery and then settlement in
the context of an already occupied landscape and Native American marginalization.
Following regional development, and then narrowing this history to the Sandy River
Delta, I end the chapter in contemporary times.
On their journey, the Corps of Discovery came into the Sandy River Delta and on
the morning ofNovember 3rd 1805, Captain William Clark wrote:
The Fog So thick this morning that we could not See a man 50 Steps off, this fog
detained us until 10 oclock at which time we Set out, accompanied by our Indian
31 Author interview, 2009.
<-------------- --
17
friends who are from a village near the great falls ... The under groth rushes,
vines &c. in the bottoms too thick to pass through, at 3 miles I arrived at the
entrerance of a river which appeared to Scatter over a Sand bar, the bottom of
which I could See quite across and did not appear to be 4 Inches deep in any
part; I attempted to wade this Stream and to my astonishment found the bottom a
quick Sand, and impassable-I called to the Canoes to put to Shore, I got into
the Canoe and landed below the mouth, & Capt Lewis and my Self walked up
this river about 1 ~ miles wide, composed of Corse Sand which is thrown out of
this quick Sand river Compressing the waters of the Columbia and throwing the
whole Current of its waters against its Northern banks, within a Chanel of ~
mile wide, Several Small Islands 1 mile up this river ...
The Quick Sand river appears to pass through the low countrey at the foot of
those high range of mountains in a Southerly direction.... A Mountain which we
Suppose to be Mt. Hood is S. 85" E about 47 miles distant from the mouth of
quick sand river... below quick Sand River the Countrey is low rich and thickly
timbered on each Side of the river, the Islands open & Some ponds river wide
and emence numbers of fowls flying in every direction Such as Swan, geese,
Brants, Cranes, Stalks, white guls, comerants & plevers &c. also great numbers
of Sea Otter in the river-.32
The Sandy River finds its source in the glaciers of Mt. Hood, located southeast of
Portland, Oregon. It flows, first west then north to its confluence with the Columbia
River, just east of Troutdale, Oregon. Its underlying soil is composed of alluvium and
loose volcanic soils, which are generally unstable and subject to erosion.33 When Lewis
and Clark arrived at the Sandy River, it was particularly loose and shallow due to the
recent eruptions of Mt. Hood, beginning in 1720 and continuing for decades into the
century.34 Named appropriately by Clark, the Sandy River's soil, to this day, is still
composed of debris from these eighteenth-century eruptions.
32 Gary E. Moulton, ed., The Journals ofthe Lewis & Clark Expedition: Volume 6-November 2, 1805­
March 22, 1806 (Lincoln: University ofNebraska Press, 1990), 12-13.
33 Barbara Taylor, Salmon and Steelhead Runs and Related Events ofthe Sand River Basin - A Historical
Perspective, prepared for Portland General Electric, December 1998, 5.
34 Kenneth A. Cameron and Patrick Pringle, "Post-Glacial Lahars of the Sandy River Basin, Mount Hood,
Oregon," Northwest Science 60, no. 4 (1986): 225.
18
European discovery of the Pacific Northwest came first from the ocean. Legends
told Europeans of a great river in North America and many captains sought its entrance in
vain. In 1778, John Meares, unable to find the mouth of the Columbia, named its northern
promontory Cape Disappointment and its estuary Deception Bay.35 However the
elusiveness of the river did not discourage naval traffic. For some time, east coast Euro-
Americans had been attempting to establish trade in China with no success, having
nothing of value to offer the Chinese. This changed because of the fur-trading industry. In
1787, east coast backers began sending merchants to the Oregon coast to purchase fur
pelts from the Natives, which in tum were sold in China.36 In the early years of the next
century, fur-traders propelled the exploration of the Pacific Northwest further.
The mouth of the Columbia was finally discovered in 1792 by an American fur-
trader seeking resources. On the morning of May 11, Captain Gray crossed the bar of the
Columbia, but chose not to explore the interior deeply, perhaps because of the draught of
his ocean-going vessel. Several months later, British Lieutenant William Broughton,
sailing under Captain George Vancouver, in a small craft ventured as far as the mouth of
the Columbia gorge.37 The British motivation was exploring and mapping the coast of
North American and making claims for the crown, but as luck would have it, the
Americans ventured into the mouth of the Columbia first. No true exploration or mapping
of the region would occur by Americans until President Jefferson's dispatch of the Corps
35 Terence O'Donnell. That Balance So Rare: The Story a/Oregon (Portland, OR: Oregon Historical
Society, 1997), 10.
36 Ibid., 11.
37 Ibid., 16.
19
of Discovery in 1804. Having just acquired political rights to the former French (formerly
Spanish) lands, Jefferson ordered Merriwether Lewis and William Clark to set off in
exploration, the same day of the official land transfer. In addition to documenting plants,
wildlife, and geography, they were also charged with the responsibilities as diplomats to
the new occupants of the United States of America, the Native Americans, and as liaisons
to their individual nations to negotiate future trade agreements.
Jefferson intended that the Euro-American settlers would be held off for some
time, perhaps even a generation, to allow for strong trade agreements and valuable
political trust to build between the individual Native American nations and the United
States of America. Jefferson, for his part, viewed these peoples as near-equal to the Euro-
Americans in the east and wished to slowly merge the two cultures into one nation.38
However, this did not happen, and Euro-American settlers' encroachment onto Native
lands could not be stopped by politicians with good intentions. Even by the time Lewis
and Clark left St. Charles, Missouri, for the exploration of the area northwest ofthe
Mississippi; American settlers were already building homesteads on the west side of the
Mississippi, past the political boundaries of the United States. 39
The Corps of Discovery intended to find a water-passage through the continental
United States to the Pacific Ocean. Pursuing the headwaters of the Missouri into the
Rocky Mountains, they were confronted with numerous falls that required portage and
ultimately realized that there was no connecting waterway or reasonable land route
38 Gunther Barth ed., The Lewis and Clark Expedition (Boston: BedfordjSt. Martin's, 1998), 7.
39 Stephen E Ambrose, Undaunted Courage: Merriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening o/the
American West (Simon & Schuster: New York, 1996), 123.
20
between, at least that far north and across the Bitterroot Range. Abandoning their boats,
they crossed the divide at the Bitterroots and proceeded into the Pacific Northwest
through the Lolo trail system with help from a Nez Perce guide who brought them to his
village on the west side of the mountains. From there, they restocked and continued
toward the Pacific Ocean in canoes and with horses.
As Lewis and Clark traveled down the Columbia River, they came across two
well-established Clackamas Tribe villages near the area ofthe Sandy River Gust below
Beacon Rock and at the site of the present-day Portland International Airport), as well as
encountering several hunting and fishing parties traveling throughout the area.40 This is
because a portion of the Lolo Pass trail network, which provides passage from present-
day western Oregon and Washington through the Cascades and the Rocky Mountains,
extends through the Sandy River Basin as well. However there is no evidence of historic
Native American settlement specifically in the Sandy River region.41 It appears that the
Sandy River Basin was used for fishing and hunting, as well as a transitional area
between regions. Settlement specifically in the Sandy River Delta area likely did not
occur because it was a floodplain. 42
The Clackamas are a sub-tribe of the Chinookan language group, which is located
predominately on the south bank of the Columbia River between the area from the mouth
of the Willamette River to just west of present-day Troutdale, not far across the river
40 Moulton, 7-10.
41 O'Donnell, 4.
42 United States Forest Service, Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Sandy River Delta Plan (US
Department of Agriculture, Pacific Northwest Region, 1995),3-7.
21
from where Fort Vancouver would be founded. They lived in villages of various sizes
and built wooden plank houses to shelter three to four families. In the summer they would
travel in search of roots and berries and also to fish the various rivers and falls of the
region. Like the Chinook Tribe, they were some of the first peoples to be acquainted
with, and suffer from, European contact.43
Partners of the Pacific Fur Company, established by John Jacob Astor, were
rescued by members of the Chinook tribe, at the mouth of the Columbia in 1811. They
established the first white settlement at the place of present-day Astoria and immediately
began probing the wilderness for furs. 44 Their explorations were short-lived. In 1813,
during the War of 1812 the British took over the coastal post and in 1814, the last of the
original Astorian party was killed by Natives near the Snake and Boise rivers, near the
present-day border between Oregon and Idaho.45
After the Treat of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812, in 1818 it was decided
that the Pacific Northwest would remain free and open to settlement from either nation,
but the British continued to exert the presence of their power. It increased in 1824, when
the Hudson Bay Company established Fort Vancouver at the confluence of the Columbia
and Willamette rivers. Dr. McLoughlin became the Chief Factor and was responsible for
43 Robert H. Ruby and John A. Brown, A Guide to the Indian Tribes ofthe Pacific Northwest (Nonnan,
OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1986),25-26.
44 Beaver, seal, and other popular fur-providing animals were hunted to virtually extinction almost
immediately in nearly every region they were found. This motivated fur-traders to probe further and further
into the earth's geographical limits, eventually leading them to Antarctica. Nathaniel Philbrick, Sea of
Glory: America's Voyage ofDiscovery, The Us. Exploring Expedition, 18-38-1842 (New York: Viking
Press, 2003), 13-15.
45 Ruby and Brown, Indians ofthe Pacific Northwest, 30-36.
22
establishing a Hudson's Bay economic/resource monopoly in the area and controlling the
natives.46 He also was commanded to discourage American settlement in the region due
to claims made by both the United States and Great Britain on the Oregon country.
Though the hope was to discourage settlement by the United States, in practical terms
settlement proved impossible to stop.47 In 1829, Dr. McLoughlin allowed French
Canadian trappers to take land on the banks of the Willamette River near present day St.
Paul, Oregon. Furthermore, ex-employees, married to Pacific Northwest Native
American women, frequently remained in the area, taking land for their own use.48
Additionally, in defiance of company orders, McLaughlin refused to turn back American
wagon train arrivals when they appeared in late October or November, knowing he would
be sending them to almost certain death.
With multiple world powers attempting to declare ownership in the remote Pacific
Northwest, the United States became motivated to lay claim to what it viewed as its own
backyard. It remained easier to access the region from the seas, rather than over land.
Because the region was dense and virtually inaccessible, except via waterways, much of
the hinterlands of the region remained uncharted. For this reason, the United States
launched the United States Exploring Expedition of 1838 from Boston into the Atlantic,
around the Horn of South America, through the waters of the South Pacific, and finally to
46 Chief Factor is a title given to one who professionally acts on behalf of another. In this case, Dr.
McLoughlin acted on behalf of the Hudson Bay Company and British interests.
47 O'Donnell, 26.
48 Ibid., 27.
23
end in a survey of the Pacific Northwest. Lieutenant Charles Wilkes and his naval
squadron arrived at the mouth of the Columbia River in 1841.49
Through his experiences in the Navy and his own personal studies, Wilkes
became a noted surveyor. He served as the director of the Depot of Charts and
Instruments in Washington DC for five years before heading the Expedition. 5o He and
his teams surveyed from the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which divides the northwestern most
region of present-day Washington State from Vancouver Island, down the Willamette
River and the area that would become San Francisco. Almost three hundred place names
in Washington can be attributed to Wilkes. The linguist, Horatio Hale, took the
opportunity to temporarily separate from the Expedition and do an in-depth study of the
rich Pacific Northwest Native American cultures. 5 I Wilkes, in his reports to Washington
DC, deemed the Natives relatively harmless to the incoming Euro-American settlement,
due to their perceived laziness, squalor, slavery, and continuing petty feuds. 52 This view
would provide a prejudiced excuse in the validation of Euro-American domination over
Native lands.
In 1838, the few Euro-American settlers of the region began using the Native
Americans' Lolo trail system to drive livestock over the Cascade Mountains, expanding
the transportation network and diminishing isolation in some part. 53 The great migration
49 Philbrick, 259.
50 Ibid., 27.
51 Ibid., 280.
52 Ruby and Brown, Indians a/the Pacific Northwest, 94.
53 Taylor, 14.
24
to Oregon territory began in 1843, even though the area would not be officially United
States territory until the treaty of 1846, which granted lands south of the 49th parallel to
the United States.54
Travel throughout the Pacific Northwest was extremely difficult due to the
varying terrain and the heavily forested interior. Over land transit was limited to horse
and footpaths created over centuries by Native Americans. Whites utilized these trails,
but the most efficient transportation route was via waterways. For this reason, most of the
development occurred exclusively along the rivers, even into the last part of the
. th 55nmeteen century.
Portland was founded in 1845 on sixteen blocks along the Willamette riverbank
and named by a coin toss. 56 Just two years before, the city's site was founded when
William Overton and Asa Lovejoy paused in their journey from Fort Vancouver back to
Oregon City in a small clearing on the riverbank. 57 Its location was chosen because it lay
halfway between Ft. Vancouver and Oregon City, with water deep enough on its west
bank to accommodate ocean-going vessels that would bring in the United States mail. In
just six short years after that coin toss, Portland was incorporated and well on its way to
being a central hub for transportation and export/importation. 58
54 Vera Martin Lynch, Free Landfor Free Men: A Story ofClackamas County (Portland, OR: Artline
Printing, Inc., 1973),3.
55 Lynch, 224.
56 O'Donnell, 53.
57 Chet Orloff, "Maintaining Eden: John Charles Olmsted and the Portland Park System" a lecture given at
Portrait ofPortland: History, Place, and Region (Portland State University, Oregon) 19 September 2004.
58 O'Donnell, 56.
25
The 1840s brought 12,000 Americans across Northwest Native American lands.59
Before the Barlow Road was completed around the south shoulder ofMt. Hood in 1846,
immigrants arriving at The Dalles, Oregon60 could only proceed via rafting the Columbia
River.61 Some settlement occurred along Sandy River, but the majority of the new settlers
chose land in the Willamette Valley. The immigrants were predominantly middle-class,
Protestant families who intended to farm. 62 Written works, diaries, and the account on the
founding of Astoria by Washington Irving, added to the lure of Oregon migration, along
with land grants.63 In 1843, a bill passed which gave free Oregon land to United States
citizens, "640 acres to every white male, 320 to a wife and 160 to a child under eighteen
years of age. With modifications to allow 640 acres to each married couple and 320 to
each single adult." The Homestead Act of 1862 made ownership of land possible for just
a ten-dollar registration fee and five years of continuous residence.64 All of this
contributed to the ease of Euro-American settlement without any consideration ofNative
American tenancy.
59 Ruby and Brown, Indians o/the Pacific Northwest, 96.
60 The Pacific Northwest Native Americans had used The Dalles region as a meeting and resource
collecting place for some time, due in large part to Celilo Falls, where many tribes met each year to fish the
salmon runs. With the arrival ofEuro-American immigrants through the region, this point became a place
ofcommerce and rest where groups could restock supplies and purchase transportation. Ibid., 98.
61 United States National Park Service, "Topographical Map ofthe Oregon NHT," Oregon National
Historic Trail, [website]; Revised September 2009, available from
http://www.nps.gov/oreg/planyourvisit/maps.htm; accessed 18 April 2010.
62 O'Donnell, 33.
63 Lynch, 55. At this time in literature, the American west was the source of romantic discovery. Since little
was known of the area, news on discovery and settlement were taken and turned into works offact-based
fiction for literary entertainment.
64 Linda Barrington, The Other Side o/the Frontier: Economic Explorations into Native American History
(Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1999), 13.
26
Needless to say, this land was already occupied when Euro-Americans began
moving in. Estimates for the pre-contact indigenous populations across all ofNorth
America range from 3.7 to 12 million. 65 After contact, Native populations dropped
quickly. In 1650 Native Americans were estimated to be 86 percent of the population of
Canada and the United States. By 1825 those numbers dropped to under 4 percent. 66 In
terms of the Sandy River Delta region, Lewis and Clark estimated the Clackamas tribe,
located near the Sandy River Delta, at 1,800 members in 1806; at the 1855 treaty signing,
only eighty-eight members remained.67
The land-appropriation policies of the United States government in the western
half of the continent in the mid-1800s caused Pacific Northwest Native Americans' land
to be overrun with white settlers who failed to give Native American tribes the material
tribute their culture was accustomed to receiving, and who took the land for their
personal use. The Whitman massacre of 1844, in Walla Walla, in southeastern
Washington, was a tragic example of the negative consequences. The Whitmans had set
up a mission and founded a community around it with the intent of "civilizing the
natives." The clash of cultures led to the killing of the entire family and several friends by
Native Americans and set off a decades-long series of wars between Native tribes and
immigrants.68
65 Barrington, 1.
66 Ibid., 6-7.
67 Ruby and Brown, A Guide to the Indian Tribes ofthe Pacific Northwest, 26.
68 For a detail account of events and subsequent treaties imposed on the Native Americans of the Pacific
Northwest, see Ruby and Brown, Indians ofthe Pacific Northwest.
27
These events culminated in the Dawes Act of 1887, which abolished Native
Americans' communal ownership of reservation lands, giving them individual parcels
instead, which resulted in the enormous reduction ofIndian-held land. Between 1887 and
1934, Native Americans lost two-thirds of their remaining landholdings, due to poor
record keeping and the many confusing land acts, which gave Euro-Americans more
power to manipulate the system. This, combined with Native American reluctance toward
agricultural development of remaining reservation lands, created extensive poverty in an
entire United States population on shrinking lands. In an attempt to reverse this
devastation and the drain on the government, the Indian Reorganization Act was passed
in 1934. It provided tribal councils and prohibited the sale ofNative American lands to
non-Native Americans, returning Native Americans' responsibility over their own
lands.69
Most reservation land treaties were concluded in the mid-1850s, and by 1881,
nearly every Native American was assigned to a certain reservation. Many chose not to
live on the reservation, their reasons often stemming primarily from relocation from their
homelands. Generally, reservation lands were not Native American homeland, but rather
leftover land that Euro-American settlers did not want. Reservations were meant to
encourage assimilation, specifically changing the hunting and gathering lifestyle into an
agrarian culture, but nearly all ofthe land provided on reservations was unsuitable for
agriculture due to poor soil, extreme weather, or frequent drought.7o Furthermore the
69 Ibid., 266-268.
70 Robert E. Ficken, "After the Treaties: Administering Pacific Northwest Indian Reservations," Oregon
Historical Quarterly 106:3 (Fall 2005), <electronic edition> pars 1-3.
28
social services provided by the United States government were virtually nonexistent. For
example, teachers sent to the reservations were under-educated and, in some
circumstances, illiterate.71 Forced attendance of Native children was done through
boarding schools and sometimes the removal of children from their parents' custody.72
Over the years, as more Euro-Americans moved in, formerly unattractive reservation
lands now became desirable and reservation boundaries became blurred by land hungry
Euro-Americans.73 Often the boundary indicators in treaties did not correspond to
physical geography and allowed for infringement causing reservations to shrink further. 74
By the early 1900s, Native Americans, who had formerly roamed in great populations
over the entire region, were confined to small tracts of reservation lands with minimal
populations. The removal and erasure of Native Americans from lands by Euro­
Americans changed the geography of the region drastically through denser residential
settlement and agricultural and industrial development.
Some remote areas of the Northwest region remained virtually untouched until the
twentieth-century. By 1901, most of the area of the Sandy River Basin remained a remote
wilderness. To this day, 75 percent of the Sandy River Basin is forested and about three
quarters is publically owned as part of the Mt. Hood National Forest.75 The agricultural
development that did occur was more frequent along the lower Sandy Basin, where
71 Ibid., pars 5.
72 Ibid., pars 15.
73 Ibid., pars 21.
74 Ibid., pars 22.
75 Taylor, 7.
29
vegetables, berries, fruits and grains, and, later, ornamental plants and trees were grown.
The natural landscape was altered when floodplains, previously used by Native
Americans during low-river times, were drained and filled. 76 Consequently, the land was
drastically changed geographically, changing the course of the rivers, altering vegetation
species, and subsequently affecting native animal routes and populations. Furthermore,
the development of the Sandy River Delta erases the past usage and with it, erases
contemporary knowledge of the historic site.
In 1903, with an eye to the future, Portland began arrangements for its elaborate
Lewis and Clark Centennial and American Pacific Exposition and Oriental Fair,
scheduled for June of 1905, which would attract more than a million attendees. The
celebrated landscape architect, John Charles Olmsted, was commissioned to design the
fairgrounds, which he located near Guild's Lake in northwest Portland. Additionally he
mapped out a green space plan for the city that wasn't immediately implemented, but
would eventually become the basis for Portland's current park system.77
Generally, development in the Sandy River Basin was focused on roads.
Recreation areas were in high demand in the region, particularly in the early twentieth
century after the appearance of private automobiles, as Portlanders journeyed out to the
base ofMt. Hood for vacation and leisure activities.78 Hikers had begun scaling Mt. Hood
in the mid-1800s. Government Camp, established in 1845, became their base camp and
76 Ibid., 19.
77 Orloff.
78 Ibid., 16.
---- -------------
30
that same year Joel Palmer reached the summit. In the 1920s, the Mt. Hood Loop
Highway was completed, which eased the travel to Government Camp and facilitated the
high recreational traffic.79 The use of the Sandy River Delta area as a recreation area
disturbed wildlife and broke apart forest growth along transportation lines.
Road development was also encouraged by the emerging logging industry, which
began in the lower Sandy River basin in the late 1850s. Logged areas were cleared and
made ready for agricultural use and community settlement. At first, logs were floated by
the rivers, but shortly after logging began, railroads made exportation more efficient.8o
Logging was virtually umestricted even into the 1970s when scientists reported on "the
importance of riparian vegetation in maintaining healthy river systems.,,81 This
umestricted practice created debris and pollutants that destroyed the Sandy River Basins
various natural eco-systems. The timber harvest industry continues today, but
regeneration techniques aim to reduce the impact, but riparian areas are smaller now and
contain less diverse vegetation, which provide fewer buffers against high stream flows. 82
Bull Run Dam was constructed on the Sandy River in the 1890s, initially to
provide drinking water to Portland. The location of the dam was still so remote that they
had to create a road to reach the site. Realizing the importance of the natural environment
to pure drinking water, President Harrison established the Bull Run Reserve in 1892 and
79 Ibid., 20.
80 Ibid., 17.
81 Ibid., 18.
82 Ibid., 18-20.
31
by 1895 Portland began receiving water. 83 Shortly after dam construction, in 1911,
railroad tracks to the site were completed and in 1913 electricity ran along the route. 84
In 1906, the Mr. Hood Railway and Power Company began work on two
hydropower projects that provided electricity to Portland until the Dalles Dam was built
in 1957. The Bull Run Project, begun in 1906, consisted of a powerhouse on the lower
Bull Run and a diversion dam on the Little Sandy River. Marmot Dam, constructed in
1913, diverted water from the Sandy River to the Little Sandy River through a network of
canals and tunnels, the longest of which was 4,690 feet and ran under a mountain ridge.
The Marmot Dam was equipped with a fish ladder, but it was mostly used to catch adult
salmon and steelhead for the hatcheries. 85 Damming (particularly the Bonneville Dam of
1934-37), logging, and transportation activities on the Columbia and its tributaries
ultimately led to the extreme depletion of salmon populations, such that they reached an
endangered level.
In 1957, further damage was done to the existing landscape when the Dalles Dam
was constructed further up the Columbia River. It completely submerged the falls and
Celilo Village, the longest continually inhabited site in North America.86 The ancient
settlement and the fishing platforms of its citizens were obliterated in a matter of days as
the waters rose above them. Discussions are underway on the possibility of repairing this
83 Ibid., 20.
84 Ibid., 15.
85 Ibid., 22.
86 For more information on Celilo Falls and Celilo Village, see Katrine Barber, Death ofCelilo Falls
(Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2005).
32
cultural destruction, but no dates have been proposed for this restoration.87 This project
has now been taken up by the Confluence Project, which will provide land along the
banks of Celilo Lake, in which Maya Lin will create a memorial type land-artwork that
references the historic fishing platforms that once extended out over the falls. 88
Since contact, the landscape of the region from the eastern borders of Washington
and Oregon to the Pacific coast has changed drastically. Although many restoration
projects in recent decades have repaired some of the damage, the cultural devastation
remains. Tribal members still number well below contact estimates, tribal lands are still
limited to their nineteenth-century boundaries, and disenfranchisement leaves Native
Americans largely without true political power. Native American culture is
predominantly relegated to the museum and the reservations. This creates the
misperception that Native American culture is a dead culture or merely non-existent.
With Maya Lin as their commissioned artist, the Confluence Project seeks to correct this
perception by placing site-specific artworks in historical and contemporary context.
87 Although it has been discovered that removal of the dam would allow Celilo Falls to completely return to
its original state, because the rock formations were not dynamited as assumed, geographical reclamation is
not currently being considered.
88 Confluence Project, "Celilo Park News," Confluence Journey Book [website]; available from
http://www.confluenceproject.orglnews/celilo-park-near-the-dalles-oregon!; Internet; accessed 24 April
2010.
33
CHAPTER III
THE WORK
Maya Lin chose the Bird Blind site in the early stages of the Confluence Project's
site decisions. The design changed several times but the concept of the Bird Blind
artwork held strong (image 8).89 It is a room-sized, elliptical structure set up on steel
column supports with a gentle S-curving ramp that rises from the gravel path into the
enclosure (image 9). The form of the structure is made of smooth, unvarnished light
wood and supporting steel elements. The ramp is composed of a wood walkway and
handrail, which are held together and supported by steel guards, supports, and wire
barriers (image 10). The enclosure is created by two-by-four wood slats, which alternate
with spaces of equal width and are held together, at the base, middle, and top, with a steel
rail to create the blinded space (image 11). The only decoration is the text that runs the
length of the handrail and into the enclosure and serves as a guide to reading the work.
Otherwise the design elements are simplified to function.
89 Judy Odenheimer, Project Manager Sandy River Delta State Park, interviewed by Lindsi Cagan,
Troutdale, Oregon, 12 March 2010.
34
The wood used to construct the Bird Blind is Black Locust, an invasive, non-
native species, which is prolific in the Pacific Northwest and has been historically used
by farmers for fencing. This wood was selected for its relatively sustainable qualities and
its durability.9o The climate of the Sandy River Delta is continental and marine
influenced, so it endures more extreme temperatures along with heavier rainfall compared
to other continentally influenced climates, requiring the use of this resilient hardwood.91
As late as 2005, Lin was still proposing additional works for this site, similar to
the environmental art/site experience created at Cape Disappointment. Since the Sandy
River Delta was historically a meeting and fishing location, a compass was planned,
naming and pointing to the historical locations of the tribes. The compass would also
have had the current information on how many members remain from each tribe. A boat
launch was planned at a point where the Corps of Discovery entered the Columbia.92
Only the Bird Blind was built, standing as the sole artwork for the site. Its dedication
brought over 400 people to celebrate its success and Maya Lin spoke of this site as
representing the pure goal of the Confluence Project from a restoration and witness
perspective. 93 With this statement, Lin is defining the Confluence Project as a group that
seeks to reconnect sites with their historic functions through site-specific artworks and
corresponding landscape restoration. This means that the Bird Blind, as an example of the
90 The materials used at the Bird Blind site were harvested in the Pacific Northwest and milled in Walla
Walla, Washington. Ibid.
91 I discuss this in more detail in the next chapter on site.
92 David Sarasohn, Waiting/or Lewis and Clark: The Bicentennial and the Changing West (Portland, OR:
Oregon Historical Press, 2005), 117. There is no explanation given for why these works were not realized.
93 Cagan interview, 2010.
35
Confluence Project sites, is not merely an artwork placed appropriately in a location, but
also that there is a interdependent relationship between the design of the artwork and the
design of the landscape.
The Bird Blind is located in the north-northwestern point of the Thousand Acres
area of the Lewis and Clark State Park and gateway to the Columbia Gorge National
Scenic Area. It is also part of the greater Mount Hood State Park. To the north and
northwest of the Bird Blind is the Sandy River, which joins with the Columbia River
bordering the north and east, forming a triangular land-piece. To reach the Bird Blind, the
visitor must take interstate 84 east from Portland to exit 18, "Lewis and Clark State
Park." The trailhead to the artwork is located at the southeastern point ofthe east-most
parking lot.
The trail to the Bird Blind passes through a large, grassy area that was once used
for agricultural purposes and now has been restored to its natural flora (image 12). The
landscape is bordered to the north by fir trees with power easements and lines running
through the area to the river. It is a twenty to thirty-minute walk to the artwork from the
trailhead. The land directly to the south and leading to the Bird Blind is reserved as an
off-leash dog area, which is a suitable use for the grassy landscape. However the area
directly around the Bird Blind is part of the forest revitalization project and is filled with
saplings. Currently, these are struggling to grow due to the trails created by visitors to the
park before the restorative process began. The trails wind in and around and then down to
the river's edge (image 13). A sign posted at the entrance to this restoration-process area
(image 14) directs users to stay on the graveled trail, however prior use habits have
36
forced the landscape into something of a compromise. Visitors of the site have continued
to use the former trails and have made new trails (images 15-17). This is causing erosion
at the banks directly around the artwork (image 18), but this conclusion is negligible
because the soil at the delta is subject to natural floodplain erosion.
Traditionally, a bird blind is used to view wildlife, specifically birds, from within
the environment, yet obscured so that the viewer does not disturb the animals. Bird blinds
can be circular or square, with one side completely open as an entrance for the viewer
with a viewing slit. They can be placed directly on the ground or elevated. Elevated bird
blinds are generally found in wetland areas, like the Sandy River Delta. The viewer
approaches the artwork indirectly, as would be logical for the use of a wildlife viewing
blind. The trail bends to the southeast before meeting with a ramp leading into the
structure.
At the end of the handrail nearest the blind, the work reads: "Inscribed within are
the names of the animals cited by Lewis and Clark on their journey of Discovery in 1803­
1806 along with a present-day assessment of these species." The first slat to the left of the
entrance indicates the organization of the information on the 129 species vertically as:
"Date" documented in the Lewis and Clark diaries, "Lewis & Clark Name" given in the
diaries, "Common Name", "Scientific Name", and "Status" of the species whether
currently endangered or extinct (image 19). Each species is listed accordingly on its own
slat running chronologically from left to right based on the date of observation
documentation. The information for species regarding scientific and common names, and
the status of the species was collected by the Confluence Project from the Sierra Club's
37
publication: What's Lost, What's Left: A Status Report on the Plants & Animals ofthe
Lewis & Clark Exhibition in 2002.94
The first species citation is from May 18, 1804 when Lewis and Clark were only a
four-days journey from Missouri's Camp Wood. This means that the Bird Blind in
Troutdale, Oregon gives information on several species not seen in the larger Columbia
River regional environment of the site. Since the Confluence Project is limited to the
Columbia River community, it seems logical to only include species cited by Lewis and
Clark once they crossed the Great Divide of the Rocky Mountains in Montana. However
if we view the Confluence Project as part of the overall commemoration of the journey of
the Corps of Discovery it makes sense to include all species observations documented in
the Lewis and Clark diaries. This makes the Bird Blind an important source document for
the entire journey of the Corps of Discovery and species changes since then to 2002.
Potential confusion of the locations of species documentation can be avoided by
reading the entire inscription on the handrail leading to the blind, which notes the exact
date of the Corps of Discovery's arrival at the site. It reads,
The Confluence Project selected the Sandy River Delta site to commemorate
Lewis and Clark's travel past this place on November 3, 1805, and to recognize
the National Forest Service's removal of the Sandy River Diversion Dam.
"Below Quick Sand River the Countrey is low rich and thickly timbered on each
Side ofthe river, the Islands open & Some ponds river wide and emence
numbers of fowls flying in every direction Such as Swan, geese, Brants, Cranes,
Stalks, white guls, comerants & plevers &c. Also great numbers of Sea Otter in
the river" - William Clark, November 3, 1805
This structure bears witness to the restoration of these 1,500 acres and to the
return of the Sandy River to its natural course.
94 Confluence Project Source Document for the Sandy River Site, provided by researcher Betsy Henning,
2010.
38
Inscribed within are the names of the animals cited by Lewis and Clark on their
journey of Discovery in 1803-1806 along with a present-day assessment of these
species. Dedicated August 23, 2008, by the first peoples of the lower Columbia
River Basin.
The decidedly site-specific text on the handrail (image 20), with one phrase indicating the
larger time frame, may however lead the viewer to expect site-specific species
information in the blind. Once in the blind, viewers are faced with dates of observation
that greatly precede the exploration of the Sandy River site and are expected to mentally
bridge the gap between site-specificity and the larger historical context, or possibly be
oblivious to the situation.
There currently is no plan in place for updating the statuses of threatened and
endangered species.95 Due to the dedication date noted on the handrail, these species
statuses could be seen as merely a moment in time, the moment that the Bird Blind was
dedicated. However, there are two major issues with this perspective. First, the source
document for the species status was printed in 2002 and species statuses may have
changed in the six years prior to project completion. Second, the Bird Blind presents itself
as monument of continuity. This can be inferred by the use of information that spans
multiple generations and cultures within the larger context of Lewis and Clark's journey.
Consequently, it is problematic to inscribe possibly outdated information on a monument
with no plan to revise it without noting the information source date somewhere in the
piece, thus misleading the viewer into trusting dated information.
The leading question becomes, whether or not the average viewer, likely a
wandering dog-owner or fisherman, will be able to fill in the information gaps. In a
95 Cagan interview, 2010.
39
gallery space, such as the Henry Gallery at the University of Washington, where the Bird
Blind design was exhibited in Lin's Systematic Landscapes exhibition, the curatorial staff
provides information in pamphlets and wall labels. However this information is not
available to the site visitor, leaving the artwork to stand alone in its environment. This is
the purest and most natural way to experience the artwork; without the interceding
information. But without the external source information, is the Bird Blind less enjoyable
as an artwork?
I believe that this artwork can be appreciated as a site-specific work without the
historical reference, because it is appropriate for the site and is fully integrated with the
landscape. The external information is not necessary to appreciate the inscribed
dedication and its intention, nor is it necessary to appreciate the species change
documentation on the slats. Furthermore, the external information is not necessary to
appreciate the experience of the Bird Blind and its relationship in its landscape.
Although, the Bird Blind presents itself as a usable artwork, the use of text in the
work makes it reasonable to ask whether the average park visitor interacts with the
material provided, to what extent, and how this may affect reception. The placement of
the text is in evident locations, like the handrail and interior slats of the structure. They
can also easily be overlooked. The handrail is for hands to stabilize the walker as they
move up the ramp. One may notice the handrail just enough to physically interact with it,
but neglect to notice the text inscribed on it. The visual interaction with the handrail often
occurs at a distance where the text may not be evident, or at least become secondary to
moving through the work. Furthermore, although Black Locust is a resilient hardwood,
40
the text will become worn down over time by hands sliding across it. This could be
intentional, however the choice of a resilient hardwood for the handrail and the
established maintenance concerns (which I discuss in the next chapter) all indicate that
the text is meant to endure.
The text lining the blind structure is obvious and provoking. The viewer most
likely will not immediately find the title slat, but western-reading conventions will push
to the left where directory information can be found. From here, reading left to right, the
viewer is overwhelmed with the volume of information. There is no sign or other external
information about the site and artwork available to the viewer. A sign briefly stating the
restoration initiatives of the United States Forest Service greets the viewer as they enter
the site, but nothing of the Confluence Project or the Bird Blind and its placement in the
restoration area. Consequently, if the viewer misses the handrail text, the slats of textual
information in the blind become disconnected from their context. Only the short title,
"Lewis & Clark Name," indicates the information's context and this assumes that the
viewer will see it and assumes the viewer will know who are Lewis and Clark. Lacking
this information decontexualizes the artwork to a significant extent.
Without considering the textual information, the Bird Blind is still enjoyable as an
artwork and potentially usable. Like a room outside, the artwork separates the viewer
from the landscape, yet allows the viewer a space to take in the landscape. Although the
wood slats obstruct the exterior view, there is no roof (as would generally be on a
traditional bird blind), exposing the viewer to the environmental elements, yet separate
from them. The slats are smooth and regular, their text drawing the eye and their
41
verticality bring it skyward. The shape of the enclosure is similar to an eye, peering
straight up into the sky, like the viewer's gaze.
However there are environmental issues that must be addressed. In the winter, the
wildlife is scarce. In other seasons, birds abound, but not necessarily near the Bird Blind.
Birds mostly remain high above in the trees or far into the fringes of the park due to the
pedestrian traffic and dogs. Furthermore, when surrounding trees are in full foliage, as
they are from mid-spring to early fall, the Bird Blind becomes a nearly enclosed space,
making wildlife viewing impossible. Merely the placement of the slats close together
makes it difficult to view the surrounding landscape in ideal conditions (image 21).
Additionally, from high summer until early fall, wasps have found the foliage and warm
space ideal for nests (image 22). As a result this Bird Blind is not a functional bird blind.
Nevertheless, this scenario is merely the extreme case of the unaware viewer, visiting the
artwork once.
In actuality, the average viewer of the artwork is a regular park-user and would
likely view the work several times, in various interactions, with multiple intentions; all
layering together to create, over time, the art/viewer interaction and dialogue. We should
not limit the reception of the artwork to a one time, variable association experience,
because this denies the relationship that can occur between the viewer and the artwork
over the course of time. The placement of the Bird Blind in its related landscape infers
the intention of building relationships with park-goers, as an added element of their
landscape experience. If it were meant to be a one-time experience, the work would be
placed only for the dedication and then removed. This does not, however, change the fact
42
that the Bird Blind cannot be used as a bird blind, as intended by Lin and the Confluence
Project.96 So it is possible that the term "blind" is meant literally.
When Lewis and Clark, with their Corps of Discovery, entered the Sandy River
Delta and began recording the wildlife they observed, did they really see the delta
environment? Does recording information translate into understanding? With the Bird
Blind, Lin is showing us that it does not. The great scientific discovery was documented
and specimens gathered, but like the data inscribed on the slats surrounding the Bird
Blind enclosure, it does not reveal the world they had entered into. They did not
understand the intricately interwoven relationships between fauna and flora, weather and
travel, people and landscape. For all the groundbreaking observations recorded in the
journals, they barely scratched the surface of the complexities of the region the United
States had obtained from another foreign power, both governing bodies completely
ignorant of the environment and peoples.
Lin mimics this experience for the viewer, by providing the data, yet obscuring
the exterior view to slim slots of space, placing the viewer completely in the landscape,
yet above and isolated from it. "Blind" becomes an adjective for the experience of the
viewer. The materials of the work also speak to this experience. Black Locust is non­
native and invasive, taking over and pushing out riparian tree species. The steel
supporting elements are industrial, raise the structure, and hold it steady in the alluvium
floodplain soil. These aspects are the suggestive of the Corps of Discovery. They too,
ushered in an invasive culture that strongly rooted itself in the new land.
96 Jane Jacobsen, Confluence Project Director, email to author, 14 July 2010.
43
CHAPTER IV
THE SITE
In order to evaluate the Bird Blind as a site-specific artwork, I first discussed the
development of the Confluence Project and its intentions for the seven site-specific
artworks, each ofthose artworks tied to an entry in the Lewis and Clark Journals.
Because those seven artworks reference a moment in history for the Euro-American
discovery of the region, I devoted an entire chapter to the history of the Pacific
Northwest, from contact to present day, in order to firmly place the Bird Blind's textual
reference in historic context. Furthermore, the site chosen for the Bird Blind has its own
landscape history that emiches the understanding of the artwork as a site-specific piece.
The Bird Blind was created specifically for the Sandy River Delta site. Consequently,
without full understanding of the site, the artwork cannot be fully understood in its
landscape/artwork relationship.
The Bird Blind is located on property owned by the United States Forest Service
in the Sandy River Delta,just east of Troutdale, Oregon, in Multnomah County.
Originally the site lay in Clackamas County, a region that had once loosely encompassed
most of the Pacific Northwest and was reduced in size over time as the United States
44
expanded and incorporated this area. In 1843, the western boundary followed the
Willarnette River north and in 1844 the northern boundary was placed at 54 0 40', just
south of Russian Alaska.97 However, in 1853, Washington ceded, moving the northern
border down to the Columbia River.98 In 1854 the Cascade Mountains became
Clackamas County's official eastern border; in 1895, Portland's county, Multnomah,
claimed the riverfront strip along the northern portion of Clackamas.99 Consequently, just
before the tum of the century, the county had shrunk to its present boundaries and the
Sandy River Delta was officially located in Multnomah County.
The Sandy River Delta region, as defined by the United States Forest Service,100
is located at the western end of the Columbia River Gorge Scenic Area, which begins in
the east at Hood River and follows the Columbia River down to the Sandy River. It is
also a part of the Mount Hood National Forest. The United States Forest Service acquired
the approximately 1,400 acres from Reynolds Aluminum in 1991. 101 It includes
approximately 270 acres of wetlands. 102 Since then, it has become the Lewis and Clark
State Park and is used for hiking, horseback riding, fishing, and dog-walking. The
original Sandy River channel separates Sun Dial Island, to the north, from the "mainland"
97 Lynch, 2-3.
98 Ibid., 4.
99 Ibid., 5-6
100 Because of the United States Forest Service's continued rehabilitation and reclamation work in the
defined "study area" as indicated in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement of 1995, where the Bird
Blindwould eventually be located, I have chosen to use these boundaries as my boundaries as the artwork's
site.
101 United States Forest Service, BPA Report, 2001, pI.
102 United States Forest Service, Draft, 3-10.
45
Thousand Acres Area. Gary, Flag, and Chatham Islands lie to the east. 103 The Bird Blind
artwork is located at the northern "lip" of the Thousand Acres area, looking out on the
northern tip of Gary Island.
The climate is both marine-influenced and continental. The Cascade Mountains,
just to the east of the Sandy River Basin, cause an orographic liftl04 which results in
approximately twice the annual rainfall as Portland,just 13 miles to the west. Almost
ninety percent of the rainfall occurs during the months from October to May. This
weather pattern contributes to the natural wetlands geography of the region; however,
frequent outbreaks of high pressure coming in from the east cause rapid evaporation from
dry winds. This high pressure from the east also stratifies average temperatures, giving
the Sandy River Delta Region higher temperatures in the summer and lower temperatures
in the winter, while having double average rainfall for its marine-influenced neighbor just
to the west. These climate issues influenced the materials chosen for the Bird Blind; steel
supports are used to withstand possible flooding and extreme temperature changes, black
locust wood is ideal due to its ability to endure both extreme dry and wet weather.
Agricultural use of the Sandy River Delta area, before 2001, destroyed riparian
forests and introduced invasive, non-native species into the land. The floodplain and its
habitat, which composes much of the delta, were lost due to damming and
103 Ibid., 1-2.
104 Orographic lift is the flow of air being forced over barriers, such as highlands or mountains. The moist
air, forced aloft begins to cool; consequently condensation forms, and rain or snow begins to fall.
Definition courtesy of Weather.com online glossary: http://www.weather.com/glossary/o.html accessed 27
April 2010.
46
construction. !Os For example, a "rock dam built in the 1930s to re-channel the mouth of
the Sandy River to improve a smelt fishery partially [isolated] a slough from the Sandy
River" and disrupts interaction between the river and its floodplain. 106 This rock dam
diverts much of the Sandy River flow into the once Little Sandy River to the west. As of
1995, twenty-five percent of the area was forested with deciduous trees, while the
remaining seventy-five percent is rolling-meadows caused by flooding and the filling in
of stream-channels and ditches for agricultural use. 107 The Bird Blind is located just
outside one of these meadows, where the forest meets the water in an area that was
historically a floodplain.
Two parallel power lines cut through the Thousand Acres sub-area, creating right­
of-way easements for the Bonneville Power Administration; they include twenty-three
towers that hold the high-voltage power lines. Since studies are still underway
investigating electromagnetic fields effects, there is a "prudent avoidance" policy in
effect, which discourages recreational use around power structures and places trails
perpendicular to overhead lines. !Os
The United States Forest Service, in its 2001 Bonneville Power Administration
Annual Report, stated, "[r]estoration of historic landscape components is a primary goal
for this land. The United States Forest Service is currently focusing on restoration of
riparian forest and wetlands. Restoration of open upland areas (meadow/prairie) would
105 United States Forest Service, Draft, 1-6 - 1-7.
106 Ibid., 3-8.
107 Ibid., 3-11 - 3-12.
108 Ibid., 3-29.
47
follow substantial completion of the riparian and wetland restoration.,,109 In the years
from 2001 through 2007, the United States Forest Service removed the majority of
invasive non-native species from the study site and established native shrubs and trees in
their place. In the Thousand Acres sub-area, where the Bird Blind is located, land
management focused on recreating the naturally occurring wetlands that were destroyed
by agricultural development. 110The Sandy River Delta is also part of the "Pacific flyway
and is used by migratory birds as resting or nesting ground during migration. This area is
also used as nesting and wintering grounds by resident and transient wildlife."I11 For this
reason, the Bird Blind was created for this exact location. As the United States Forest
Service restores the natural environment to bring back native species, the Bird Blind
allows for viewing those species (under ideal circumstances) and notes the species
observations of Lewis and Clark in 1805.
The specific area where the Bird Blind is located (image 23), at the confluence of
the Sandy and Columbia Rivers, was originally deemed inaccessible by the United States
Forest Service when the artwork was installed. Invasive blackberries measuring up to six
feet tall dominated the landscape, pierced by numerous tunnels carved by deer for trails
throughout the site and to the river. It became accessible when Friends of the Forest, a
volunteer-based non-profit division of the United States Forest Service, cleared trails to
the structure. Over 400 volunteers cleared and leveled the trail that would lead to the Bird
109 United States Forest Service, BPA Report, 2001, p l.
110 United States Forest Service, BPA Reports 200 1-2007.
III United States Forest Service, Draft, 3-15.
48
Blind. 112 An Environmental Impact Assessment was completed for the site. This forced
the designers to consider various project alternatives and their corresponding
environmental consequences. The project plans were altered a few times in order to avoid
any unwanted impact on the natural landscape, before settling on the current landscape
design.
Although the site was drastically changed by farming and industrial development,
important historical evidence could still be present beneath the surface. The restoration
process called for replanting and river restoration, but in order to restore the wetlands,
bulldozing would be required. To protect possible relics or historical environmental
elements, archaeologists were brought in to inspect the site and advise on how to
proceed. 113
The Bird Blind is currently maintained through volunteer efforts. The
maintenance plan for the Bird Blind site is informal and also volunteer-dependant. The
United States Forest Service, Multnomah County, and Friends of the Sandy River Delta
largely share maintenance responsibilities. In addition to restoration efforts, the United
States Forest Service executes construction projects and provides minor regulation.
Multnomah County police force, along with support from the United States Forest
Service, is responsible for security of the site. The site is patrolled by both land and
water, particularly when there is a scheduled event in the park. Friends of the Sandy
River Delta volunteers are primarily responsible for the maintenance of the trail. They
112 Cagan, 2010.
113 Ibid.
49
collaborate regularly with the Confluence Project team to solve maintenance problems
and ensure proper care for the site. The site does not currently experience any severe
problems with vandalism, crime, or transient populations. Most ofthe maintenance
required is limited to weathering and natural deterioration. I 14
Without the volunteer efforts, the Bird Blind and its site would deteriorate; the
artwork would no longer be accessible and possibly no longer exist as an artwork, but as
a ruin. While natural deterioration is a possible artwork intention, the Confluence Project
and its volunteer organizations do not appear to have this intention. Everything provided,
including media and maintenance plans, by the Confluence Project gives every indication
that all ofthe artworks are intended as long-term monuments to the confluence of
cultures initiated by the Lewis and Clark expedition.
Friends of the Sandy River Delta has becoming increasingly more involved with
this site and is working with Judy Odenheimer, the Confluence Project's Site Manager,
and her teammates to develop a more formal maintenance plan for the park. In lieu of
this, they send out volunteers on a regular basis to check the status of the trails and to
troubleshoot any problems they might find. They also hold monthly work parties where
community members and volunteers work together to clean, restore, and otherwise
maintain the site. The Confluence Project team attends all Friends of the Sandy River
Delta meetings and helped them achieve their non-profit status. They welcome the United
114 Ibid.
50
States Forest Service at their meetings and often invite them to give talks or updates
about recent happenings. 11 5
The Confluence Project is currently seeking to hand-off stewardship
responsibility to a Portland-based University. This university would then be responsible
for coordinating efforts between the various organizations involved with park
maintenance. The idea is to secure an umbrella organization to handle the operational
aspects of the site, as well as facilitate the communication necessary to coordinate
volunteer efforts. According to the Site Manager, the ideal maintenance plan will
properly utilize and foster the community's passion for the site, tapping the resource of
social responsibility and land stewardship. Odenheimer believes the outlook for increased
organizational and community involvement is very positive considering the immense
amount of local support for the project. ll6 Without this integral site maintenance, access
to the Bird Blind would be extremely limited to the point that there may not be
viewership. Without viewership, the artwork ceases to exist in its intended purpose as a
site-specific monument for a historical moment.
One of the initial barriers to the success of this project was Highway 84. Prior to
construction, there was no safe exit at the location of the Bird Blind. There was simply an
open ditch, which did not provide for safe turning or ample deceleration time. As a result,
Jacobsen, as the Director of the Confluence Project, alerted the Department of
Transportation and successfully petitioned to have a deceleration lane constructed.
115 Ibid.
116 lbid.
51
Following that project's success, Jacobsen invited The National Guard's Innovative
Readiness Training Program to camp onsite and create a parking lot at the trailhead to the
Bird Blind. She framed it as an ideal opportunity to execute training exercises and allow
troops to practice with heavy equipment. The National Guard sent forty soldiers who
needed machinery training to construct the parking area; the majority of the gravel
needed for the project was donated as well. ll7
The restoration and improvements made by the United States Forest Service,
Friends ofthe Forest, Friends of the Sandy River Delta, and other volunteer-based
organizations have transformed the Sandy River Delta site from overgrown, post­
agriculture, and partially inaccessible to a multi-use state park of revitalized native
vegetation. Although there are competing users to this site, which characterize the
landscape, at this point, the work accomplished in clearing landscape and maintenance
efforts can be seen as an undeniable success.
117 Ibid.
52
CHAPTER V
THE CONNECTION
The Bird Blind has elements in common with previous works by Maya Lin. The
reoccurrence of the ellipse form, which is the basic shape of the Bird Blind, is found in
several works, such as the Civil Rights Memorial and the Yale Women's Table. Lin has
used text in many works as aesthetic elements to assist in conveying subject matter, often
used in conjunction with the passage of time, as seen in the chronological ordering of
names in the Vietnam War Veterans Memorial. More recently, Lin has begun combining
man-made materials with more site-specific natural materials, as in the design of the
Langston Hughes Library.
The ellipse first appeared in Lin's land-art work in the Civil Rights Memorial in
Montgomery, Alabama, completed in 1989 (image 24). Previously known for her
Vietnam War Veterans Memorial (1982), this was Lin's second major commission and
also a memorial. Not wanting to be typecast as a monument designer, Lin hesitated. 118
Ultimately she took on the project because at that time there was not a memorial that
addressed the Civil Rights Movement. Furthermore her research into this subject brought
118 Lin, 4:26.
53
to light the dismissive and incredibly shallow information provided in public schools and
media. 119
The monument is placed in front of the Southern Poverty Law Center. In order to
install the design, the entire fa<;ade had to be reconfigured. On a curved, black stonewall,
Lin has carved a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech; "We
are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and
righteousness like a mighty stream." In front of this black stone is conically shaped and
inverted, the round flat end facing up with water spilling through the middle and over the
edges as a fountain, with water emerging from the center and spilling over the text that
parallels the rim (image 25). The text is organized as a timeline of Civil Rights events
running chronologically clockwise. Historians working on behalf of the Southern Poverty
Law Center chose the people and events inscribed. 12o
The work is beautiful in its simplicity of design and materials. Repetition of
elements and devices, such as the circular form and singular color, add to this simplicity
and allow for the subject of the work to resonate with the viewer. In many ways, the Civil
Rights Memorial is a further interpretation of the artistic vision of the Vietnam War
Veterans Memorial. The Vietnam War Veterans Memorial is presented as a book, with an
initial beginning, building height at the middle, and tapering off at the end. The Civil
Rights Memorial, however, is circular, reminding the viewer that the progress that has
119 Ibid.
120 Ibid., 4:28.
54
been made because of certain events must always be in mind and continue to circulate
throughout our culture in order to fully realize those same achievements.
This aesthetic intention is repeated in the Yale Women's Table (1993) (image 26).
The Yale Women's Table is also an elliptical stone table with water emerging from the
center and spilling out over the sides. In a lighter two-toned stone, it shows the number of
women enrolled at Yale from its establishment in 1701 to 1993. The text is merely
numbers of women for each academic year, starting with a series of zeroes and spiraling
out to the edges of the table (image 27). This shape of text creates visual motion and
implies increase, as it mimics the increasing size of the numbers of female students.
The Bird Blind text, like both the Civil Rights Memorial and the Yale Women's
Table, runs the interior edge ofthe elliptical shape. However in this case, the viewer
stands within the artwork, instead of being relegated to the outside. Within the piece, the
text surrounds, vertically towering over and horizontally encompassing the viewer. In this
way, Lin presents the information of new species to the viewer, as the new world would
have seemed to Lewis and Clark - surrounding and towering. Much like the orders Lewis
and Clark received before entering the new wilderness, the handrail prepares the viewer
for the information within. Upon stepping inside, the realization of merely the number of
entries is intriguingly overwhelming.
The Langston Hughes Library built in Clinton, Tennessee in 1999, has a
compilation of materials that is intriguing (image 28). The library is a l860s bam raised
on two supporting cribs. In order to accomplish this, Lin added a foundation to the bam
and a layer of steel for support. The interior is entirely rebuilt in new materials. Upstairs
55
in the library proper, the interior space is designed to be flexible, by having separate areas
and the ability to combined the spaces into one larger multi-purpose area (image 29). The
lower level cribs contain a bookstore on one side and the elevator and stairway on the
other. A metal frame supports the interior and each crib space is wrapped in an inner
layer of glass that allows the viewer to see through the gaps between the exterior timbers
(image 30).
The Bird Blind also uses wood and steel in its design, steel for supporting
elements, wood as the body. In both works, there is the potential of the viewer's ability to
see through the exterior of the structure out to the surrounding landscape. In actuality, the
space revealed only provides a glimpse, while ftmctioning as a screen that separates
viewer from vision. This creates functional visual tension. However the harmonious
material combination invokes the serenity of balance: old and new, natural and processed.
The Bird Blind's use in the landscape is drastically different from a true building. It
functions as a point of entry into the landscape.
In the larger scope of contemporary art, Maya Lin's Bird Blind is the aesthetic
contrast to Dan Graham's glass pavilions. Whereas Lin gives the experience of visibility
in her revealing structure, it actually shields the viewer from exterior vision. Although
there are spaces between the wood slats, the space is only large enough to see out through
if one puts their eyes right up against the slats. Contrastingly, the glass pavilions ofDan
Graham are structures that are as visibly permeable as they appear. Graham describes
them as a "kind of two-way mirror, which is both transparent and reflective
56
simultaneously.,,121 Referencing the urban landscape, Graham has noted the use of mirror
glass in office buildings to obscure the people within and, at the same time, allow them
full view of the passersby.122 This can be seen in his pavilions, such as Heart Pavilion,
Version II (1992) and Octagon for Munster (1987). By using glass that is reflective and
transparent from both sides, his artworks create interaction between those on the inside
with those on the outside, as well as the interaction between their own reflection and that
of those on the other side.
Graham also integrates natural elements into his man-made materials in two
works from the 1990s. In Triangular Pavilion with Shoji Screen (1990), he combines a
wooden screen with his two-way mirrored glass. In Empty Shoji Screen/Two-Way Mirror
Pergola (1996), a climbing vine is added to the exterior of the screen with a bed of
smooth stones inside. Graham's motivation is to create an anonymous, socially-based
structure similar to a phone booth or bus shelter (images 31-32).123 His re-imagining of
the glass pavilion in many various forms can be seen as a kind of serialization of a sub-
set within his oeuvre, which stands in direct contrast to the commemorative site-specific
works of Lin. However, without Lin's guiding text, the experience of both types of works
is comparable; both provoke the viewer into a visual interactive dialogue of exterior
versus interior and the role one plays on either side and whether to be on the inside truly
means you have a more secure and informed space.
121 Mark Francis, "Mark Francis in conversation with Dan Graham" in Dan Graham (New York:
Phaidon Press, 2001), 21.
122 Ibid.
123 Ibid., 23.
57
Maya Lin's work comes out of the Minimalist tradition in connection to land art.
The works and writings of Robert Smithson inspired Lin, both having a strong connection
to the land as a source of inspiration. 124 However, earlier land-art artists, such as
Smithson, Heizer, and De Maria, imposed their works on the landscape, rather than
integrating a response to it. This can be seen in great works such as Smithson's Spiral
Jetty (1970), Heizer's Double Negative (1969-70), and De Maria's Las Vegas Piece
(1969). By contrast, Alan Sonfist states that his "art comes from [his] personal
experiences with the land," which is closer to Lin's working methods.125 He begins by
visiting his site and absorbing the atmosphere.126 An excellent example of this is Time
Landscape in New York City (1965-present) where native vegetation was replanted to
simulate the "natural phenomena that once existed on a selected tract of land before
colonial settlement." Like Sonfist, Lin visited each of the Confluence sites many times in
order to become acquainted with the landscape and to create a work that would
specifically speak to the site and its history.127 Both bring elements of the landscape into
h . d· ... 128t elf stu lOS as lllsplratlOn.
124 Jean Dubuffet, Richard Roth, and Susan King Roth, Beauty Is Nowhere: Ethical Issues in Art and
Design Critical Voices in Art, Theory and Culture (Amsterdam: G+B Arts International, 1998),66.
125 Robert Rosenblum, Alan Sonfist: 1969-1989 (Brookville, NY: Hillwood Art Museum, 1990), 21.
126 Rosenblum, 11.
127 Author interview, 2009.
128 In the author's interview (2009), Jane Jacobsen explained how the Confluence board sent rocks, sticks,
and feathers from the project region to Lin and the cover of Lin's book Boundaries shows the artist holding
a stone. Sonfist tells how he keeps objects from the natural landscape as inspiration for sketches,
Rosenblum, 11.
58
A comparable Sonfist work is Circles o/Time (1986-89) at Villa Celle in
Tuscany, Italy (1986-89). The work is composed of a series ofrings with the center as a
pre-human forest vegetation plot (image 33). Immediately outside this area are cast
bronze sculptures of endangered and extinct native tree species. To enter the space, the
viewer passes through a ring of laurel through a low opening that forces them to smell the
Etruscan herbs planted at the base. Outside of this is a ring ofrock exposed by the
digging out of this space, then a ring of olive trees, and wheat fields beyond. 129 Sonfist
uses the natural landscape archeologically to convey the passing of time through the
presentation of varying landscapes elements. His Circles o/Time is a microcosm of the
changes imposed on the Tuscan landscape from before civilization to present day.
Similar to Circle o/Time, Lin's Bird Blind is set in a landscape that is in the
process of being restored to historical conditions. Although the United States Park service
does not state that the restoration is intended to return the land to pre-contactlpre­
settlement condition, their replanting of native vegetation, landscape creation of
wetlands, and removal of levees to allow the land to return to floodplain, results in a pre­
settlement-type landscape. Anticipating the return of the floodplain, Lin placed the Bird
Blind enclosure on steel, stilt supports and looking out across the river, with a ramp from
higher land leading up into it. Within the structure, the species of animals inscribed in
text is like the rings of vegetation in Circles o/Time, each indicating the changing
environment over the course of human civilization in the region. Through this historical
129 Ibid., 4.
59
reference, the artists provide a consecration of place that is not linear, but rather
exponential as events at the center change and radiate outwards into the site.
The major contrast in site approach between Sonfist and Lin is maintenance. In
Lin's works, whether it is the Bird Blind in Troutdale or the Vietnam War Veterans
Memorial in Washington D.C., it is understood that these landscape works are meant to
be maintained in the condition that they were installed. In contrast, Sonfist's works are
meant to grow and change over the passage of time, becoming fully integrated into the
site's life and allowing for changing reception. For example, while exhibiting at the
Institute of Contemporary Art in London in the early 1970s, Sonfist was invited to create
a historic forest to surround castle ruins in England. His intention was to plant the
immature trees and then allow them to grow up around and obscuring the view of the
castle ruinsYo In this way, Sonfist's work is more in harmony with the natural landscape
and its life, whereas Lin's Bird Blind is an object in the landscape as a point of reference
to historical information.
Lin has established a pattern of text usage in her artworks as historical reference
and as a guide to reading her artworks. From the beginning, with the Vietnam Veterans
War Memorial, text serves the purpose of a type of documentation that is knowledgable
and seeking to provide the viewer with an increased sensitivity to the event she is
referencing. Like Lewis and Clark's diaries, there is a poetic feeling to the methodical
approach of the intensity of documentation that reveals itself thoughtfully in the Bird
Blind. Through the listing of the species and the additional entries on status, the viewer is
130 Ibid., 14.
60
informed of the changing environment since the moment of commemoration. The living
landscape is read and experienced as part of the multiplicity of access points in the
artwork's dialogue.
61
CHAPTER VI
THE PICTURESQUE
One possible reading of the Bird Blind artwork is that it is a structure placed in a
landscape in order to alter that landscape physically and to contribute to the overall
design. This is in contrast to the site-specific reading of the piece as an artwork meant to
inform the site and excavate a history from it. Although the external textual information
is emiching to the experience of the structure, it is not necessary to the experience
derived from its complement to the landscape. As a structure in the design of the
landscape, the Bird Blind would be considered a folly, a landscape architecture device
that developed out of the Picturesque landscape tradition of the eighteenth-century. This
is not to say that a structure in the landscape cannot be considered an artwork, rather the
break between what is a site-specific artwork and what is a landscape folly is gray and
seems to occur in regard to the designer's intention at the intersection of viewer
reception.
English landscape design developed in the l700s, while the strict geometric
French Baroque gardens, such as Versailles, were enjoying their height of appreciation.
The Picturesque Garden involved informal and irregular design that featured natural
62
landscape elements and reveled in their apparent randomness, in contrast to demonstrably
ordered French Baroque gardens. Paths meandered through gently rolling hills and fields,
with bodies of water and architectural elements as points of visual reference and delight.
This style reached its height in the eighteenth century, however, in the United States, it
influenced landscape design well into the twentieth century, as seen in the planning of
Portland's green spaces. l3l The English Garden's obsession with showcasing the
character of the landscape directly correlated with American land acquisition and
development. For the citizens of the United States, it was not enough to own the land
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but it was integral to present the landscape in its varying
forms for what it was, sometimes tame and bucolic, often rugged and sublime.
One of the earliest English landscape architects, William Kent (1685-1748),
consistently presented four key points necessary to the Picturesque Garden. First, the
landscape must be composed like a Picturesque painting with a fore, middle, and
background. Other than the visual pleasure of a well-composed scene, the Picturesque
Garden was intended as a backdrop to the theater of human interaction. Secondly, Kent's
gardens overly manipulated the landscape to provide this picturesque backdrop. For
example, in a painting where the house is carefully placed, with the hills rising
dramatically behind it and a brook meandering nearby, demonstrates how Kent molded
the landscape physically. Thirdly, his designs favored curving lines in artificial elements
to mimic the physicality of the natural. Paths followed the curving of the landscape or
merely meandered through it and copse of trees grew in organically shaped plots of space
131 John Dixon Hunt, The Picturesque Garden in Europe (London: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 2002),8.
63
rather than highly controlled geometric beds. Finally, Kent included architectural
elements into the landscape. Frequently the main architecture would be a home, however
in the sprawling picturesque landscape smaller whimsical structures were placed as
points of meeting and/or contemplation, and as points of visual focus as one moves
through the landscape. 132
These smaller structures are known as follies. They can be almost any structure
placed in the landscape, from an obelisk to a castle ruin to a Chinese teahouse. William
Shenstone (1714-1763), another famous English landscape architect, discussed the way in
which these follies should be used in landscape gardens. Objects should never lie too far
to either the right or left of the view and as one walks through the landscape, one should
never have the same view of the object twice. 133 He goes on to explain that the object
need not be beautiful to be visually pleasing, but that "[o]ffensive objects, at a proper
distance, acquire even a degree of beauty," overall variety being "the principal ingredient
in beauty.,,134
The intention of the structure in the landscape is understood in Wallace Stevens'
"Anecdote of the Jar." He writes that he:
placed ajar in Tennessee
And round it was, upon a hill.
It made the slovenly wilderness
Surround that hill
The wilderness rose up to it,
132 Ibid., 30-32.
133 William Shenstone, "Unconnected Thoughts on Gardening," in The Genius a/the Place, eds. John
Dixon Hunt and Peter Willis (London: Paul Elek, 1975),291-292.
134 Ibid., 297.
64
And sprawled around, no longer wild... 135
By placing an object, like Stevens' jar, in a landscape, that landscape is reshaped in
relation to the object. Although the wilderness remains physically as it was, its relational
perception has changed due to the object becoming a point of visual and physical
reference, thus tethering the wilderness more closely to a place of relational familiarity
rather than the former feeling of nowhere-ness.
The object's use as a point of relational and visual reference became an integral
device in the Picturesque Garden. First, for its ability to give the viewer a visual and
physical goal while moving through the landscape, and secondly, structures conveyed
meaning for the landscape garden. For example, at Castle Howard in Yorkshire England,
constructed between 1699-1712, an obelisk meets the viewer at the perpendicular
intersection oftwo main paths, which divide the land just before the house into four
separate sections. On it is this inscription:
If to perfection these plantations rise
If they agreeably my heirs surprise
This faithful pillar will their age declare
As long as time these characters shall spare
Here then with kind remembrance read his name
Who for posterity perform'd the same. 136
Here the text on the structure informs us, at the most basic level, that this land is the
owner's plantation, which will be passed on to his heirs, and as we move through this
landscape we are to read it as such. Therefore as we approach the house, we are not
135 Wallace Stevens, The Palm at the End ofthe Mind (New York: Knopf, 1971), 46.
136 John Dixon Hunt, Gardens and the Picturesque: Studies in the History ofLandscape Architecture
(Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1992), 20.
65
surprised to be first met with a kitchen garden on the right. Other elements placed in the
landscape at Castle Howard, such as the pyramid and mausoleum, contribute to the multi-
generational reading. Shenstone planned this textual device in his own landscape, pairing
Virgil's Tomb with a selection of his mottoes inscribed, to convey "the pensive idea
belonging to the place.,,137
Like Shenstone's designs, the Bird Blind utilizes the concepts of relational and
visual reference with literary reading. Placed at the triangular edge of the Thousand Acres
sub-area, the Bird Blind becomes a physical goal and a visually intriguing point as the
viewer moves through the landscape. The gravel trail to the Bird Blind winds its way
through the gently rolling fields then brings the viewer around the artwork, until finally
meeting with the ramp to the structure. Once on the ramp, text inscribed on the handrail
explains to the viewer how to relate the work to the site chosen within the natural
landscape, which is a commemoration of Lewis and Clark's historical observations and
its revitalization process by the Native peoples of this area of the Lower Columbia. We
are to understand that the Native American tribes have placed this object in the landscape
in acknowledgement of the Corps of Discovery and that the present-day government
agency has, to the best of their abilities, brought the landscape back to its original state.
Of course, landscape restoration for public green space in the United States is not
new. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, landscape architecture projects were
being implemented, primarily on the east coast, most notably in New York City with the
establishment of Central Park. However, these public green spaces were not connected to
137 William Shenstone, "Account of an Interview between Shenstone and Thomson," in The Genius ofthe
Place, eds. John Dixon Hunt and Peter Willis (London: Paul Elek, 1975),244.
66
an outside literary context, nor were they intended to acknowledge Native peoples
presence in the land before Euro-American settlement.
The site at Minnehaha Falls in Minnesota in the 1880s is a different story. Like
the Bird Blind site at the Sandy River Delta, Minnehaha Falls was intended as a historic
cultural heritage site. It was made famous by the poem, "The Song of Hiawatha" by
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, published in 1855. In his epic poem, Longfellow took
liberties with the legends of the Ojibwa and Dakota tribes and wove them together with
his created story ofMinnehaha, which was inspired by his visit to the falls. The poem
made the falls a destination point for picturesque travel. However, historically, the site
was important because Fort Snelling was established there in 1819 and until then (as with
Celilo Falls on the Columbia), it was an important meeting site for the Ojibwa and
Dakota.138
The site at the Minnehaha Falls was not restorative, in the present-day sense of
the word. Instead it was a manipulated landscape in the Picturesque Garden tradition,
which conveyed the feeling of the rugged wilderness that was the theatrical background
for the characters of Longfellow's poem. 139 Although the community leaders ofthat time
intended the site to present "a true and pure presentation of nature [that] would help the
'tribes of man to prosper,' and would advance the people," in actuality it was a literary
138 Daniel Joseph Nadenicek, "Commemoration in the Landscape of Minnehaha: A Halo of Poetic
Association" in Places ofCommemoration: Search for Identity and Landscape Design, ed. Joachim
Wolschke-Bulmahn (Washington D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 2001), 56.
139 Ibid., 71.
67
garden, with a tourist audience. 140 Profit possibilities overcame the naturalistic intention
of the landscape, adding structures, both for aesthetics and commerce, along with
• 141
narratIve statues.
There are many parallels between the Minnehaha site and the Sandy River Delta
site. Ultimately, both are intended as scenic tourist destinations. Although the Sandy
River Delta has not yet experienced the commercialization of Minnehaha, it is still too
young of a site to foresee its development. In addition, they capitalize on the natural
landscape presented as historically accurate and equivalent to what Native Americans
would have experienced. Both romanticize this pre-conquest time with the idea of the
sublime and emphasize Euro-American interaction with the landscape as the catalyst for
reading the work. These landscapes are meant by the designers to be read as places set
aside by Native Americans for Euro-Americans to experience and now take in
stewardship, but with a lesson in the value of the natural landscape. The Euro-Americans
originally took the land and abused it, but now must heed the wisdom ofNative
American land values by first restoring it and then preserving it.
Both sites also derive their reading from outside literature that informed viewers
are expected to have first-hand knowledge of before entering the site. At Minnehaha, no
textual information was given in the original park. At the Sandy River Delta, the textual
information is somewhat limited. As I have pointed out, the viewer of the artwork is
expected to make the mental connection regarding the site-specific information on the
140 Ibid., 57.
141 Ibid., 72-76.
68
handrail and the larger Corps of Discovery journey within the enclosure. The viewer must
already have knowledge of the distance covered by the Corps of Discovery from St.
Lewis, Missouri to Cape Disappointment, Washington, in order to understand the
information inscribed on the enclosure slats. Taking one-step back, the artwork assumes
that the viewer knows about Lewis and Clark and the mission of the Corps of Discovery.
In addition, the viewer is supposed to know what the Confluence Project is and who are
the "first peoples of the lower Columbia River Basin." Without this basic information,
the site can only be appreciated at a purely aesthetic level.
The use of the landscape by fishermen and dogs-walkers has created trails around
and under the Bird Blind, disconnecting it from its use-purpose. Even the gravel trail
leading to the artwork is regularly ignored for the more direct dirt path created by park
goers. If the viewer does not have the basic information necessary to read the landscape
as intended, the Bird Blind changes from an artwork in the landscape to a whimsical
folly, a "jar" placed in a clearing of the wilderness. However, this is assuming the viewer
is actually experiencing the landscape as an aesthetic journey. Local newspapers are
celebratory ofthe community effort in conjunction with the Confluence Project and the
United States Forest Service in creation of this site. 142 However, my observations of park
goers on two occasions revealed a disregard of and something like irritation with the
structure. 143
142 An excellent example of this is Allan Brettman's article for the Oregonian, "Art unites, as outdoor users
coalesce around 'The Bird Blind' near Troutdale to achieve a greater good.
143 Unofficially 1observed park-users walk around and under the artwork, not one entering it And
when asked if anyone of them knew what it was for, the general response was, "I don't know,"
69
Regardless of media reception and outside literary context, the Bird Blind is
successful as an object that reshapes the landscape and introduces dialogue between the
users and the park on a new level of interaction and movement. Although former paths
continue to be used, the new gravel path is preferable during rain, which is frequent at the
site. The park users may not know what the structure is, but by walking around and under
it, they interact with it and it provokes thought, even if only to contemplate why it is there
at all. Its ramp invites the users into the structure and turns them into art viewers. The
trees and rivers surround it becoming a part of the artwork's environment, instead of
merely trees in the landscape. The negative reactions of park users only serve to validate
how the Bird Blind has molded the landscape around it and given it context.
Despite these observations and regardless of media promotion, the ultimate
reception of the Bird Blind is not yet achieved. It is a part ofthe living landscape of the
Sandy River Delta, which is not static, but ever changing despite efforts of preservation.
Currently, it seems that the majority of average park goers dismiss the Bird Blind.
However as time passes and the artwork becomes integrated into the site within the
memories of these park goers, reception may change. Initially, viewers of the artwork
may not be fully informed, but over the course of several visits, they may become
intrigued and search out information or piece it together over visits and through
conversations with other viewers. Consequently reception for the Bird Blind cannot
reasonably be gauged within the space of one visit or static perceptive circumstances.
70
CHAPTER VII
THE CONCLUSION
Maya Lin's oeuvre consists largely of commissioned site-specific artworks. She
was abruptly brought to public view for her Vietnam War Veterans Memorial (1982) in
Washington D.C. and since that project Lin has always engaged the site of her works
specifically as an integral part of the holistic art experience completed by the viewer.
Kwon defines this as the earliest formation of site-specific work provoked by
Minimalism. l44 The Bird Blind addresses its site at this basic level; however, it also
engages the site at the level of cultural framework by tapping into the intersection of
established Native American cultural and land-stewardship with Euro-American territory
documentation/exploration. Lin also adds academic literature to the artwork's site by the
inclusion of a partial diary entry by Captain Clark and a species list informed by the
Sierra Club's publication. 145 This makes the artwork engaging on multiple levels,
however a significant portion of the artwork's subject matter is not included visually or
144 Kwon, 11.
145 Sierra Club, What's Lost, What's Left: A Status Report on the Plants & Animals a/the Lewis & Clark
Exhibition in 2002 (Seattle, WA: Sierra Club, 2002).
71
textually within the site or work, which potentially excludes a significant portion of
VIewers.
Lin's notoriety is also a barrier to interpretive reading of the artwork. Because she
is so admired and well received, her artist statement obscures other potential readings of
her work. This is the fourth site of the artwork, which is the artist's oeuvre. Due to this
reception of the artist, currently there is no critical academic examination of Lin's
artworks. Interpretations of her works strongly follow her artist statements and praise her
artistic genius and sensitivity to site. 146 As Rosalind Krauss has noted, "there is no reason
to privilege the intention of the artist," because once a work enters the public sphere, it
enters into a dialogue with viewers and other works creating a meaning of its own within
this larger context. 147 Furthermore, to privilege the artist's statement is to severely limit
the work to one individual's meaning and deny the socially dynamic characteristic of an
artwork and how it can change over time, speaking to various viewer groups in different
ways over the course of its life.
The Bird Blind and its site attempt to subvert the issues created by dependency on
the artist's statement by not providing anything to indicate Lin's connection with the site,
at least within the site. Instead, there is the leading textual information on the handrail,
the species documentation within the elliptical enclosure, and the revitalization
information provided by the United States Forest Service at the entrance to the area. The
Confluence Project and media promoting the site all make a point of noting Maya Lin as
146 An academic example is found in: Ruth Laurine Fox, "Ground/Work: Extracting a Design Process from
Landscape Form" Master's Thesis, (Iowa State University, 2002).
147 Hal Foster et aI., 1993,6.
72
the designing artist. It is Lin's notoriety that provides the publically perceived legitimacy
in subject matter and monument design, making it integral to community success for the
Confluence Project. Without Lin, the Confluence Project would not have received the
overwhelming private financial support and perhaps have not happened at all. The artist's
reputation opens the doors for the projects to happen. However, because of Lin's
reputation it is assumed that the artworks are successful and suited to the sites. This may
be true, but this conclusion should only be drawn through critical analysis and not be
blinded by the artist's statement nor her successful reputation with other site-specific
works.
Kwon defines "iterant" artists as those who are repeatedly commissioned by
institutions to create artworks specifically for local sites. In this relationship, the artist
researches the site, along with repeated visits, and with the collaboration of local
community leaders, produces the site-specific work. 148 Although each artwork, or
monument in the case of Lin, is created individually for the unique locale, it creates a
lineage of works interconnected by the genius of the artist and the artist's intention. It
was this authorial genius that Antone Minthorn desired when he stated that Lin was one
who could truly speak to the heart of Native peoples. 149
Now having completed the site and bringing the Bird Blind artwork into the
public realm, the Confluence Project, media, and the established art reception of the Lin
are sustaining limited interpretation of the artistic genius of Lin, the one historical
148 Kwon, 46-47.
149 Author interview, 2009.
73
perspective, and one reading of the artwork. Therefore it is necessary to approach the
artwork primarily as an art object integrated in a public site with its own history that is
both addressed and neglected by the artwork.
When the Sandy River Delta was obtained by the United States Forest Service in
1991, it was intended as a public park that would be revitalized with native vegetation
and restored to its natural landscape. In creating recreational areas, the government
established a certain, regular group of users accustomed to walking their dogs, hiking,
horseback riding, and fishing. Its choice as the site for a Confluence Project artwork was
coincidentally based on the convergence of public land, Native American historical
significance, and documentation in the diaries of Lewis and Clark. Although the
significance of the Lewis and Clarkjourney and how it changed the landscape of the
Pacific Northwest is important, critically no single history can be privileged over any
other just as the artist's intention alone cannot define the meaning of a work.
Having discussed regional and site history, as well as the contemporary use of the
site, I have placed the Bird Blind in a comprehensive site context. I explored the
connections to other contemporary artworks and other works within Lin's oeuvre to place
the Bird Blind in the tradition of art and landscape design, how it lies within the tradition
and how it moves forward. In this way, I have addressed the various ways in which the
Bird Blind may be received, from a vital community memorial, or an aesthetic landscape
folly, to an interesting and possibly frustrating object detached from the usable landscape.
However, even the most negative initial reception can, over time, become familiar
with the artwork as part of the expected and enjoyed landscape. Perhaps the fisherman is
74
not happy having to walk around the artwork, but as years passed, irritation mellows to
acceptance and then the relationship of familiarity occurs between users and the
landscape. After time, that same fisherman could become intrigued with the structure and
approach it in his own time, discovering for himself its meanings and intention, which
could be something entirely different than the Confluence Project's intention, but just as
rich and rewarding. This is because anything placed within the environment becomes, for
better or worse, a part of the viewer/user's personal environment. Whether that object
remains in place is at the discretion of the government since it controls the landscape. In
this case, the Bird Blind has won the larger community support and has the promise of
being a permanent part of the Sandy River Delta landscape.
APPENDIX
IMAGES
75
Image 1: Maya Lin, Bird Blind, Troutdale, Oregon, 2009, photo by author
76
Image 2: Maya Lin, Fish Cleaning Table and Dock, Cape Disappointment, Washington,
2009, photo by author
77
Image 3: Maya Lin, Viewing Platform, Cape Disappointment, Washington, 2009, photo
by author
..
Image 4: Maya Lin, Amphitheater Trail and Cedar Circle, Cape Disappointment,
Washington, 2009, photo by author
78
79
Image 5: Maya Lin, Boardwalk to Waikiki Beach, Cape Disappointment, Washington,
2009, photo by author
80
--
Image 6: Johnpaul Jones and Associates, LandBridge, Vancouver Washington, 2009,
photo by author
81
Image 7: Johnpaul Jones and Associates, LandBridge, Vancouver, Washington, 2010,
photo by author
82
Image 8: Maya Lin, Bird Blind, Troutdale, Oregon, 2009, photo by author
83
..
Image 9: Gravel trail bends to the right before meeting with the ramp into the Bird Blind,
Troutdale, Oregon, 2009, photo by author
84
Image 10: Ramp to the Bird Blind, Troutdale, Oregon, 2009, photo by author
85
86
Image 12: Trail to Bird Blind, Troutdale, Oregon, 2009, photo by author
- ~
Image 13: Trails around Bird Blind, Troutdale, Oregon, 2010, photo by author
87
88
Image 14: Sign posted by the United States Forest Service at the entrance to the Bird
Blind site, Troutdale, Oregon, 2009, photo by author
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Image is: Trails to Bird Blind, Troutdale, Oregon, 2010, photo by author
89
90
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91
Image 17: Trails beneath Bird Blind to the river, Troutdale, Oregon, 20 I0, photo by
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92
Image 18: Erosion at the base of Bird Blind, Troutdale, Oregon, 2010, photo by author
93
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Image 19: Title slat on far left with observed species information on following slats, Bird
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Image 20: Composite photo of a portion of the handrail text for the Bird Blind, photos by
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94
Image 21: View through Bird Blind slats, Troutdale, Oregon, 2010, photo by author
95
Image 22: Wasps' nest in the Bird Blind enclosure, Troutdale, Oregon, 2009, photo by
author
96
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97
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Image 24: Maya Lin, Civil Rights Memorial, Montgomery, Alabama, 1989
Image 25: Maya Lin, detail Civil Rights Memorial, Montgomery, Alabama, 1989
98
99
Image 26: Maya Lin, Yale Women's Table, New Haven, Connecticut, 1993
100
Image 27: Detail, Yale Women's Table
101
Image 28: Maya Lin, Langston Hughes Library, Clinton, Tennessee, 1999
,---------------------
102
Image 29: Upstairs interior, Langston Hughes Library
103
Image 30: Ground floor interior view into bookstore from stairwell, Langston Hughes
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104
Image 32: Dan Graham, Empty Shoji Screen/Two-Way Mirror Pergola, 1996
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Image 33: Alan Sonfist, Circles ofTime, Villa Celie, Tuscany, 1986-1989
106
107
Image 34: Aerial photo of Bird Blind site, courtesy ofthe Confluence Project website
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109
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ambrose, Stephen E. Undaunted Courage: Merriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and
the Opening ofthe American West. Simon & Schuster: New York, 1996.
Barber, Katrine. Death ofCelilo Falls. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2005.
Barrington, Linda ed. The Other Side ofthe Frontier: Economic Explorations into Native
American History. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1999.
Barth, Gunther ed., The Lewis and Clark Expedition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's,
1998.
Beardsley, John. Earthworks and Beyond. New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 2006.
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