Wolfgang Laib
...he viewer. The viewer then shifts to Pollen from Hazelnut by Wolfgang Laib, it is just down a hall from Kelley’s piece. The viewer catches their eye on the glowing warm yellow colour of the pollen, and feels compelled to have a closer look. But the room is blocked off. Laib creates different meaning for the room, by not making it just a space where a piece is viewed but by making the room become part of the piece being viewed. We are allowed to look, listen and smell but not touch this installation. Touch is a sense that is teased by Laib’s work. Pollen from hazelnut trees is the only material he uses in this piece. The pollen is displayed in a large square shape in the middle of the room. The edges of the normally rigid shape have been softened. Laib creates a soft form that provokes the illusion of an aura around it. You know the pollen must be soft and you want to sift it through your hands, like playing with sand on a tropical beach. You can smell the delicate exotic scent of hazelnut tree pollen. It’s a privilege to smell this scent, which is rarely found in a gallery. The colour of the pollen is brighter and more radiant than saffron robes that Buddhist monks wear yet it provokes a similar sense of divinity. Although the pollen makes no sound this sense is still a force within the work. People walk up to the piece and become as silent as the pollen. This entices a reflective state within the viewer. Pollen from Hazelnut is a conceptual minimalist installation that transcends the viewer into a state of vibrant meditation. Laib’s work with pollen is about the process. Pollen being a fertilizer is a beginning step in the process of life. Laib’s own process in making Pollen from Hazelnut begins with the pollens collection. This ritual activity begins in the spring and lasts only a few months. He collects all his pollen by hand and only from plants near his studio and ...