Exploring Maya Lin's Ghost Forest Seedlings Project

Ghost Forest Seedlings—the first generative art project by artist, architect, and environmental activist Maya Lin—centers on the organic growth patterns of a living, subterranean network of tree roots. The project takes its title from Lin’s acclaimed 2021 installation Ghost Forest, for which she brought 50 towering Atlantic white cedar trees to New York’s Madison Square Park as part of an examination of the Earth’s vulnerability and the impact of the climate crisis. As such, Ghost Forest Seedlings reflects the artist’s deep sensitivity to the complexity, beauty, and fragility of the natural world and its interconnected systems.

Ghost Forest Seedlings artworks depict a seed or group of seeds that grows into an intricate root pattern, or seedling, over a predetermined amount of time. Priced at $1,000, each of the 500 unique works from the project will include three components: a signed print of the final root system on Hahnemühle Bamboo paper; a generative NFT that shows the seedling’s evolution in real-time; and a video timelapse tracing the seedling’s complete growth pattern.

All artworks are available online at (opens in a new window) verso.pacegallery.com.

The algorithm that Lin has developed for this project will generate growth patterns as expansive and intricate as those found in nature, and varying traits in the Ghost Forest Seedlings artworks include the number of seeds in each work; the colors of each seed and root; the number of roots that grow; and the duration of the growth period for the root systems, which can range from one hour to three months.

Ahead of the project’s release on September 18 during Climate Week NYC, Pace Verso has created curated selections of Lin’s Ghost Forest Seedlings prints based on their various formal and thematic qualities. This focused presentation follows below.

Spring

Summer

Fall

Winter

Cool

Warm

Monochrome

Multicolor

Maximalist

Minimalist