Without Place-Without Time-Without Body

As a “search for an entrance or a passage to another world,” German artist Wolfgang Laib, constructs repetitious minimalist sculptures made from natural materials, such as the pollen and rice seen in Without Place-Without Time-Without Body (Now on display at the Nelson Atkins Mususem of Art in Kansas City, Missouri). Without Place-Without Time-Without Body, is a quiet, organic work, which consists of hundreds of piles of rice, all organized by the human hand. In the center, lays five mounds of hazelnut pollen (collected by the hands of Laib). These piles of rice and pollen forms a grid that echoes the geometry of our modern world while at the same time, appearing to be a fabulous mountain landscape. Due to the human hand, imperfection is found. The grid is not perfect because the form of each pile of grain slightly differs. The grid of grain and pollen attempts perfection and falls short. The materials are utilized as a source of enlightenment, beckoning their spiritual and natural implications as a symbol of regeneration and the cyclical nature of life itself. The grid suggests both man-made and natural systems but the materials of rice and pollen are key components. These materials serve as a reminder of what is essential and what Laib is claiming to be vital: that in finding vehicles of spirituality, one finds nourishment for the soul.
Laib is an artist tied to specific places-India, China, and Germany. Within this installation, the idea of transcendence blossoms into a transportation device that appears to be achieved within this world, through reminding us of the preciousness of organic materiality. Transcendence seems to be less about ascension and more about realizations of reality. It is in this realization, in which one becomes “enlightened” with the knowledge of the cyclical nature of life and the beauty that exists through such a process. Forced to look at forms that rest upon the ground and point up, ascension becomes an act of looking. This act of looking is towards the sky, which contains the sun, the moon, and the stars and confirms that the sheer force of gravity has us rooted in the land, which harvests the grain and pollen. Thus the mounds become another way of asserting physicality and spirituality simultaneously.
Centrally located within the sculptural installation, are the five pollen mounds, which radiate with the pure saturation of their yellow hue. This is a potent visual experience. These are also a reference to the Five Sacred Mountains in China, which Laib has climbed. The repetition of the installation suggests infinity and the cosmos while acting as an offering for the viewer to engage within her or her own ontological dialogue. Through this experience you are transported to another place, all the while remaining rooted in materiality. Without Place-Without Time-Without Body, serves as a meditation on life, which has “ no beginning and no end," and we find ourselves immersed within.