Create, destroy, recreate, believes German conceptual artist Wolfgang Laib whose works represent the passage of life.
This verse from the Upanishads is well explained in the land art of German artist Wolfgang Laib who believes that the brahmanda (universe) is the origin and end of all things.
Laib, 61, emulates this philosophy in his art form titled “Passageway” exhibited at Gallery Chemould Prescott Road in the Fort area to commemorate 60 years of Indo-German diplomatic relations. For his works, Laib uses only natural materials such as beeswax, oil, milk, stones and rice. His art is either in monochrome or, at most, is created using only two colours, mainly yellow and white. Each form, he says, is fragile “like the natural materials I use” and later, it is destroyed and then recreated.
The mild colours and the distinct features of his art strike you as you enter the gallery. There are no large canvases; only pure natural materials placed on the ground. Most notable is his use of large quantities of intense, yellow pollen, granite stones and rice that he collects by hand and spreads on the floor or piles into conical heaps.
“Rice Houses”, the first work at the exhibition, is made up of house-shaped long granite stones covered in soot and oil with red and black pigments ingrained in them — quite similar to what one sees in the temples in south India. Laib has a connection there; he has a studio in Madurai which he set up about eight years ago and it is from here that he gets his major stonework done.
Laib shares a special relationship with India. He first visited the country in the 1960s with his parents when he was 15. His parents toured India, discovered the Sanskrit culture and worked for the poor. When in college, Laib returned to India for his thesis.
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Laib studied medicine but never practised it. According to him, he never changed his profession as both art and medicine are the science of life. To him, medicine is about physical existence, while art is a natural science and he took it up as an extension of life that questions the conformity of physical existence. “Life is beyond your physical form,” he says with a smile.
Art, like nature, is something to be experienced through ones senses, says Laib. He strongly believes that art is not something that must be explained; “it must be felt and then interpreted”. Like his work made of about four house-shaped granite stones placed as though making a passageway. Each stone is embedded in conically-framed small rice mounds, giving the work a spiritual dimension, the message of which is open to all.
Next to it is the “Milkstone” which, at first glance, appears to be just another white slab. Take a closer look and you realise that there’s much more to it. The block of white marble, about three square feet, sits on a much larger base. The edges of the marble are cut concavely and milk is poured over the stone up to the brim, washing away the borders. The milk, symbolising sustenance and libation in India, is wiped off at the end of each day. “Milk is no longer food for the body. It’s something much more universal,” says Laib.
One of the biggest art pieces is made of three egg-shaped granite stones, signifying the brahmanda — the biggest cosmic egg —, placed at random distances from one another on one side of a large field of rice mounds laid out in a grid depicting a table or a field of food.
On the other half of the grid is a monolithic wooden architectural bridge on which rest four beeswax boats, some 10 feet from the ground. The boats, made in Germany, illustrate the passage of life, and the many brahmandas. A meagre piece of stone, when extrapolated, finds new meanings. The art reveals a close relation between life and death.
(The exhibition is on at Chemould Prescott Road and Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke from December 16 to January 13)
