A Wax Room for a Mountain, 1994 (oil pastel & graphite on paper)

Wolfgang Laib’s red terraced structure (ziggurat) is enclosed by a lightly sketched mountain. Below the ziggurat is a red box resembling a doorway and a boat stands at each side of the rectangle. This drawing preceded the construction of an actual wax chamber that Laib built into a mountain peak in the French Pyrenees in 2000. “It was a huge project that took a decade to realize,” Laib said. “The mountains are made of hard granite and there are no natural caves. So we used explosives to make it. The beeswax was transported by helicopter from a candle factory located near my home in Germany. Spending time in the wax room is an experience away for our world…” The glowing chamber of beeswax is meant to stimulate the senses and invite contemplation and mediation. Here, Laib’s use of pastel, with its soft consistency and bright color, evokes the warmth, spiritual energy, and substance of the chamber that he would eventually construct.