Installers work to remove packing materials from "Above and Below."

Artist Maya Lin's newest installation "Above and Below" has brought her to the IMA to oversee the piece's installation.

Visitors to the Indianapolis Museum of Art can now get a look at "Above and Below," a new sculpture by renowned artist Maya Lin, that's being installed this week.

The 2,000-square-foot sculpture uses aluminum tubing to sketch an underground profile of Indiana's White River system.

Lin, who is at the museum today helping with the installation, created the design through several visits to Bluespring Caverns near Bedford and with help from U.S. Geological Survey scientists, who used ultrasound to map the tributaries and caves beneath the state.

The sculpture will serve as a gateway work for the Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park, scheduled to open in 2009. The park, which will feature site-specific works, sits on 100 acres just west of the museum grounds.

IMA visitors can watch the work from the second-floor gallery or through the third-floor windows. The sculpture rises to between the second and third floors on the Fortune balcony near the museum's outdoor amphitheater. It was funded by a gift from William L. and Jane H. Fortune.

By Tuesday, visitors should be able to go out on the balcony to experience the sculpture up close. The project also includes a new stone floor for the balcony selected by Lin, but that part has been pushed back to early 2008, IMA officials said.

Lin, 48, is best known for designing the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington.

To read an in-depth profile of Maya Lin, click here