A monumental installation by the world-renowned artist duo Fischli/Weiss is unveiled this morning (Friday 8 March 2013) in Kensington Gardens London. It is presented by the Serpentine Gallery and The Royal Parks in a joint project which is bound to attract viewers from all over the world. Rock on Top of Another Rock is a large-scale sculpture and the last work that the artists jointly conceived before David Weiss’s untimely death last year.
The monumental work, Rock on Top of Another Rock, is formed of two giant glacial boulders balanced precariously on top of each other. Situated close to the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens and standing at over five metres tall, the work will be visible from a number of viewpoints across the Park. The installation also relates to the artists’ 1984 series of photographs, Equilibres/Quiet Afternoon, which shows precariously balanced sculptures moments before their collapse. The rocks’ massive presence teeters between stability and instability.
The Swiss duo Fischli/Weiss – Peter Fischli (b. 1952) and David Weiss (1946-2012) – has created some of the most memorable artworks of the past three decades and inspired many artists around the world. The artists are best-known for their 30-minute film, The Way Things Go (1987), which has enjoyed a reputation far beyond the art world. In it a series of everyday objects and machine parts roll, topple, burn, spill or otherwise propel themselves forwards to create an extended chain reaction of miraculous cause and effect.
Equally recognised is their long-term archival project Visible World, created between 1987 and 2001, which consists of 3,000 small-format photographs arranged and uniformly displayed on a specially constructed 90ft-long table, the images ranging from jungles, gardens, deserts, mountains and beaches to cities, offices, apartments, airports and famous landmarks, such as the Eiffel Tower and The Golden Gate Bridge.
Their work was chosen to represent Switzerland at the Venice Biennale in 2003, where they won the Golden Lion prize. They have exhibited extensively worldwide, with solo exhibitions at Tate Modern, London (2006), the Centre Pompidou, Paris (1992) and Museum ofContemporary Art, Los Angeles (1988).
Peter Fischli lives and works in Zurich, and will complete projects conceived together with David Weiss, while developing his work as an individual artist.
Fischli/Weiss Rock on Top of Another Rock is curated by Hans-Ulrich Obrist, co-director of the Serpentine Gallery. It is part of a series of occasional installations and exhibitions of sculpture in Kensington Gardens that has included Thomas Schutte’s United Enemies in 2012, Turning the World Upside Down by Anish Kapoor in 2011 and The Sculpture Show in 1983 presented with the Hayward Gallery.
The work is presented jointly with Qatar Museums Authority and will travel to Doha following its showing in London as part of Qatar UK 2013, a year-long cultural exchange between the two countries.
The work will be on display in the park until 6 March 2014 admission is free.