wolfgang laib..... natural materials at the MoMA

I just saw this guy on 'Art 21' a PBS program we try to watch. I like him and what he is doing, but then I am a fan of off the wall art installations. Maybe not to everyone's taste and it might be that the pollen could have been put to better use, although it might be bringing some sort of inspirational nature message to city dwellers.........


one more, I can't resist....some things are just all about the journey/the process...not always that entertaining to watch, maybe... the importance is in the feeling of being that focused on the task at hand, I think and I can relate that to so much that I do around our homestead............

I think he is a very contemplative type of person and his art reflects that to an extent. However something really bugs me about him "creating the same artwork for 20 years" - I'm assuming he means the big square of pollen. I kept waiting for him to do something else. When the end came and the square was there, I thought to myself - "Whoa, if this guy's been doing this for 20 years, he needs to start thinking 'outside the box'"! When I impose my expectations on his work, I think how much more exciting it would be, how much more of a living presence, if people were allowed to interact with it in some way. Breath on it, sneeze on it (it is POLLEN!), hang a pendulum from the ceiling and let people nudge it to create the feeling of the pollen being dispersed by various means.

Sometimes I think there is a very thin line between art and OCD. Sometimes there may be none at all and that may be the point.

So in summary, I found his work both mesmerizing and frustrating. But I've been thinking about it ever since you posted it! And maybe that's the point.

I think he is a very contemplative type of person and his art reflects that to an extent. However something really bugs me about him "creating the same artwork for 20 years" - I'm assuming he means the big square of pollen. I kept waiting for him to do something else. When the end came and the square was there, I thought to myself - "Whoa, if this guy's been doing this for 20 years, he needs to start thinking 'outside the box'"! When I impose my expectations on his work, I think how much more exciting it would be, how much more of a living presence, if people were allowed to interact with it in some way. Breath on it, sneeze on it (it is POLLEN!), hang a pendulum from the ceiling and let people nudge it to create the feeling of the pollen being dispersed by various means.

Sometimes I think there is a very thin line between art and OCD. Sometimes there may be none at all and that may be the point.

So in summary, I found his work both mesmerizing and frustrating. But I've been thinking about it ever since you posted it! And maybe that's the point.

Jen...I see what you say.........I think the full length PBS documentary gave a better sense of where he is coming from...I think his gathering pollen is very meditative and the sorting and jarring and tapping to spread all have a very meditative feel.....the square on it's own doesn't have the impact, I think, without an awareness of the preceding processes and knowing he is Buddhist and seeing his glass home in a rural setting in Germany.... it all connects.
The documentary had more of his work that included some folded thin brass sheets into boat shapes set in granulated bees wax. Small beeswax rooms...........and yeah, a little OCD maybe, and that may be why it appeals to my ADD brain....I have a great admiration for and fascination with total meditative focus on a task as it rarely happens for me. I think some of our most wonderful artists and musicians have probably diagnosable disorders that in one way or another make them more creative more innovative and more thought provoking.