Wolfgang Laib’s much anticipated Pollen From Hazelnut has finally been installed in the atrium of the Museum of Modren Art. That’s 18 jars of bright yellow hazelnut pollen laid out on a platform, elevated six inches from the atrium floor. ArtInfo’s Ben Davis highlights the artwork’s post-minimalism with its Eastern philosophy influence and points out that it is the artist’s largest pollen work to date.
The piece looks a little bit sterile on the platform, as if on a pedestal, a bit removed, it’s organic reproductive part of the Earth motif a bit dulled in it’s isolation from the ground… but I suppose it gives it extra-spiritual, shrine-like strength. Just don’t let Woody Allen next to it.
“Pollen from Hazelnut,” Wolfgang Laib, Jan 23–Mar 11, MoMA, New York (Photo: Noam Graham/Flickr)
