 |
|
|
 |
|
||||||||
|
|
|||||||
 |
|
Working in the media of sculpture, film, photography, and installation art, Fischli and Weiss transform everyday objects into ironic manipulations, infusing them with new life and importance. Highlighting humorous and emotional elements in their work, the artists simultaneously amuse and unnerve their audiences. Through their work, the artists explore the relationships of seemingly opposing elements -- work and play, order and chaos, mundane and sublime -- and draw the viewer into the realm of opposites as he or she may be both fascinated and disquieted by what is on display. Works from the 1990s include Le rayon vert (The Green Light) (1990), a kinetic sculpture created from a plastic cup spinning in a mixing bowl around a flashlight casting patterns on the gallery wall; Kanal Video (Canal Video) (1992), where existing videotape footage of sewage pipes in Zurich is edited to create a mesmerizing voyage of color and light; and recent trompe l'oeil sculptures, which unveil the mystique of museums by depicting the disarray of the working world behind the scenes. |
|
||
| Peter Fischli and David Weiss Untitled from the series Stiller Nachmittag (Quiet Afternoon) 1985 |
||
|
|
| A new version of the
1995 Venice Biennale work, an array of videotapes reflecting Fischli and
Weiss' fascination with the hidden wonders of everyday life, will also be
on view. A series of ten monitors displays over eighty hours of videotape
whose subjects include a chef at a Swiss restaurant, the annual Zurich motorcross
race, and workers from the sanitation department. The works on view at SFMOMA will range from the artists' first collaborative work, Wurstserie (Sausage Series) (1979), to the recent video installation for the 1995 Venice Biennale for which Fischli and Weiss were chosen to represent Switzerland. The artists share a heritage that goes back to Marcel Duchamp and the Dada movement of the early 20th century, expanding on the notion of the readymade as objet d'art to include well-crafted replications of everyday objects, artfully carved in polyurethane and hand-painted. Often using found objects and existing materials, Fischli and Weiss are not content to merely question the definition of art; they fracture our sense of security among the familiar objects of our world by subverting their functions and investing them with new life and meaning. Fischli and Weiss' acclaimed 1987 film, Der Lauf der Ding (The Way Things Go), follows the domino effect of a series of simple objects such as string, soap, Styrofoam cups, rubber tires, plastic pails, balloons, and mattresses; when combined with fire, gas, and gravity, these objects form a hypnotic chain of kinetic energy that disturbs the viewer with its chaotic potential. Other works include Plötzlich diese Übersicht (Suddenly This Overview) (1981), a group of small sculptures made from a nostalgic childhood medium: unfired clay; Fragentopf (Question Pot) (1984), a monumental, simulated-ceramic pot filled with hand-written questions from the banal to the profound; and Stiller Nachmittag (Quiet Afternoon) (1984-1985), a series of photographs of assemblages of everyday objects teetering on the brink of collapse. Accompanying the exhibition is a 128-page illustrated catalogue, which includes a photographic section designed by the artists and essays by Walker Art Center Curator Elizabeth Armstrong and philosophers Arthur Danto and Boris Groys. It is the first comprehensive publication in English of Fischli and Weiss' collaborative work. The publication will be available at the MuseumStore. |
 |
|
Peter Fischli & David Weiss: In a Restless World is supported by the Collectors Forum of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and is part of the Museum's New Work series of exhibitions. Additional support is generously provided by Sotheby's. Copyright © 1996-2008 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art 
|
