February 5–April 27, 2016
From 1979 to 2012,
Swiss artists Peter Fischli (b. 1952) and David Weiss (1946–2012) collaborated
on a body of work that offers a deceptively casual meditation on how we
perceive everyday life. Through a witty “misuse” of cultural genres—from
low-budget Hollywood movies and picture-postcard views to the art historical
notion of the readymade—they transformed the ordinary into something decisively
not.
Never ones to issue
statements or dictate meaning, Fischli and Weiss pondered questions great and
small, sometimes imitating whimsical philosophers. Perhaps in part because they
were a team of two, they challenged the idea of dualism, a cornerstone of
Western thought. In one way or another, everything the artists produced
playfully unravels what they understood to be “popular opposites”—labor versus
leisure, fiction versus reality, kitsch versus beauty, and the banal versus the
sublime, among others. Fischli and Weiss undid false divisions with the
conviction that bewilderment itself might be a desirable state. They aimed to
confuse hierarchies and values by creating systems doomed to fail and found
beauty in states of imminent collapse.
This retrospective
brings together over three hundred sculptures, photographs, videos, and
installations to form the most complete overview of the artists’ work to date.
The presentation is not organized chronologically—instead, selections from each
of Fischli and Weiss’s major series appear alongside works from other points in
their career, creating dialogues that span the pair’s history of working
together. This arrangement reflects the overlapping structure of their
production and underscores the coherence of their diverse oeuvre. In this way,
the exhibition encapsulates their collaboration, bringing into focus the
incisive conversation the two artists sustained for thirty-three years.
Initially planned
during David Weiss’s lifetime, Peter Fischli David Weiss: How to Work Better is
organized by Nancy Spector, Deputy Director and Jennifer and David Stockman
Chief Curator, and Nat Trotman, Curator, Performance and Media, in close
collaboration with Peter Fischli.
To coincide with this
exhibition, two public works by Fischli and Weiss will appear on the streets of
New York. From February 5 to May 1, Public Art Fund presents the text-based
monument to labor How to Work Better (1991) as a wall mural at the corner of
Houston and Mott Streets. At 11:57 pm nightly throughout February, the video
Büsi (Kitty) (2001) will appear in Times Square as part of Times Square Arts’
Midnight Moment program.
Major support for the
exhibition has been provided by Laurenz Foundation, Schaulager, Basel.
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