Rice House, 2010-2011 - Wolfgang Laib (b.1950)
The art of Wolfgang Laib is both sensuously material and rigorously abstract. His media - milk, marble, rice, pollen, beeswax - evoke associations of generation, sustenance, shelter, stability, and community, while his forms - circle, rectangle, triangle, cone, and pyramid - are the simple truths of Euclid's geometry and Sengai's Zen ink brush. Laib wants us to receive his work as spiritual and timeless, and all its simplicity, refinement, and reflexivity combine to provoke us into a state of contemplation and stillness. Laib aims straight for the viewer's sensorium, invoking not only sight but also smell, touch, and taste.
The Rice House is a returning theme in Laib's work. These houses always center the space, transforming it into a landscape in which they stand alone as if on a wide, open plain. The form of the "Rice Houses" is reminiscent of Christian reliquary shrines (i.e. sacred artifacts) or of sarcophagi, but their content is quite different. Especially in the case of reliquary shrines they have no ritual value without their sacred core. The calm, clear beauty of the house creates a distance between object and viewer. Laib's studies in medicine gave the artist a strong awareness of death as an integral part of life. The interpretation of these small objects as small treasure chests or loving votive offerings seems equally appropriate since the connection of such enclosures with the nurturing of seeds, plus the sprinkling of pollen, signifies life and renewal within the cycle of nature.
Rice House, 2010-2011 - Wolfgang Laib (b.1950)
The art of Wolfgang Laib is both sensuously material and rigorously abstract. His media - milk, marble, rice, pollen, beeswax - evoke associations of generation, sustenance, shelter, stability, and community, while his forms - circle, rectangle, triangle, cone, and pyramid - are the simple truths of Euclid's geometry and Sengai's Zen ink brush. Laib wants us to receive his work as spiritual and timeless, and all its simplicity, refinement, and reflexivity combine to provoke us into a state of contemplation and stillness. Laib aims straight for the viewer's sensorium, invoking not only sight but also smell, touch, and taste.
The Rice House is a returning theme in Laib's work. These houses always center the space, transforming it into a landscape in which they stand alone as if on a wide, open plain. The form of the "Rice Houses" is reminiscent of Christian reliquary shrines (i.e. sacred artifacts) or of sarcophagi, but their content is quite different. Especially in the case of reliquary shrines they have no ritual value without their sacred core. The calm, clear beauty of the house creates a distance between object and viewer. Laib's studies in medicine gave the artist a strong awareness of death as an integral part of life. The interpretation of these small objects as small treasure chests or loving votive offerings seems equally appropriate since the connection of such enclosures with the nurturing of seeds, plus the sprinkling of pollen, signifies life and renewal within the cycle of nature.