Wolfgang Laib: Fire Ritual, Silver Mountain, Meluvalavu (785), 2009. C print, 13 by 20 inches. Courtesy Leslie Tonkonow.
Wolfgang Laib’s installations, utilizing materials like milk, pollen, beeswax and rice, are often spiritually charged. His next project will take place on a mountain in southern India, where the artist will install a 60-foot-long egg-shaped form symbolizing the wholeness of the universe. Here he presents photos, drawings and projections related to this project; some of the footage was filmed at the Fondazione Merz in Turin, Italy, in 2009, when Laib invited 45 Brahman priests to conduct a week’s worth of fire rituals.