When works of art are pollen and rice and even milk.
Marble and milk art work pollen.
In fact laib spends the spring and summer months of each year gathering pollen from the meadows around his rural residence in southern germany.
At the end of the show the milk will be mopped up the pollen swept into jars and the wax walls packed away like so much leftover cheddar cheese.
It may be grouped with land art or process art and he shows influences of minimalism.
One of the most popular posts here on babble dabble do has been milk painting and i can see why the process makes really wild and beautiful designs.
Most of laib s works are composed of one or two materials which he has gathered in raw form such as milk marble rice beeswax and pollen.
And it has nothing to do with german art or with european art.
How to make rainbow milk marbled paper art.
He became world renowned for his milkstones a pure geometry of white marble made complete with milk as well as his vibrant installations of pollen.
Informed by the purity and simplicity of eastern philosophies he employs natural materials most notably milk pollen beeswax rice and marble.
I have done this milk fireworks activity with the boys a number of times but never with the extension activity of marbling the paper.
In 2013 the museum of modern art in new york city presented his largest pollen piece 7 m 8 m in the central atrium of the museum.
It s something so universal any human being can relate to it without language or explanation.
Laib s work is challenging to classify.
Each piece will be a very unique marbled piece of art with no two alike.
His works are more complex than being just about nature and the natural.
Some 20 minutes and three quarts of milk later the grayish marble had been transformed into a glistening white field.
This time at 10 and 11 they really understood the science behind the activity and rather than it just being a fun activity it reinforced learning.
When i originally brought milk painting to school as a science project my friend theresa suggested dipping paper in the milk to see if we could transfer the design and preserve it.
The pollen or milk in a laib piece comes without an explanation.
The impermanence is intentional the artist says.
Cut a piece of 8 1 2 x 11 piece of paper in quarters and place each piece face down lightly in the colored milk and let dry.
Laib performs his art privately quietly repetitively inviting the viewer in only via photographs with no words.
Make sure not to push the paper too far into the milk and soak think of it as laying the paper on top of the milk.
