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SUBJECT AREA LEGEND    
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ON THIS PAGE: About the Artist |
DOWNLOADS: |
LESSONS BASED ON "Moving Pictures" |
Moving Pictures:
Peter Fischli + David Weiss
Peter Fischli and David Weiss have been collaborating since 1979 on a body
of work that humorously celebrates the sheer banality of everyday existence.
As contemporary flaneurs, they observe their world with bemused detachment,
reveling in the mundane and turning every undertaking into a leisure activity.
Their delight in the ordinary is given perfect form in their flower portraits—colorful,
close-up shots of garden plants in bloom or various stages of decay. As in
much of their conceptually driven practice, the images undermine conventional
distinctions between high and low art—a culturally enforced contrast
the artists once derided in a clay sculpture of two dachshunds, one standing
on its hind legs, the other on all fours. Fashioned in the spirit of amateur
photography in both subject and style, the flower portraits employ the technique
of double exposure to achieve dizzying layered effects. The process allowed
the artists to exploit their collaborative approach: one would shoot an entire
roll of film in a suburban rose garden; the other would rewind it and then
shoot the same roll in a park in Zurich. Deliberately decorative, these photographs
push the limits of acceptability in Conceptual art. The cumulative effect
is one of abundance and kaleidoscopic visual pleasure.
| View + Discuss | |
Peter Fischli / David Weiss (Fischli: b. 1952, Weiss: b. 1946)
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| Art Explorations | |
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Using tracing paper or sheets of acetate, have students work in pairs and each create a drawing of a thematically related subject. Overlay the images one on top of the other to simulate the effect of a double exposure. |
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Create a classroom collaboration. Have students agree upon some common everyday object or subject thematically related such as food, artificial and/or live plants or flowers, pop culture, etc. Using disposable cameras, have them photograph the subjects in curious arrangements. Create an interesting display with photographs from each student. Consider how the colors, lines, shapes, and textures of the images will work together to create a strong and aesthetically pleasing overall group composition. |
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Ask groups of students to choose an ordinary object that they use regularly or find interesting and create a collaborative poem about it. Begin by brainstorming and listing words that describe what the object looks like (nouns), things that it does (verbs), and what moods and feelings it conveys (adjectives). Then have each student create a line or two for the poem, integrating words from the list. Compile the lines to create one poem. |
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Using a Computer, digital camera,
and digital imaging software program such as Adobe Photoshop, create
the effect of a “double exposure” on the computer. Have
students take pictures of colorful silk flowers or actual flowers
and plants. Import two of their flower images as separate Layers
into Adobe Photoshop using the following commands. Repeat with second image. Using the “opacity” function (a small slider bar located above the Layer Palette), students can play with the transparency of each layer to create a similar, dizzying effect of a double exposure. |
| Additional Resources |
Armstrong, Elizabeth. Arthur Danto, and Boris Groys. Peter Fischli and David Weiss: In a Restless World. Walker Art Center, 1996. Bossé, Laurence, and Boris Groys. Peter Fischli and David Weiss. Verlag der Buchhandlung Walter König: Mesée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1998. “Collaboration Peter Fischli/David Weiss.” Parkett, 1988, pp. 20–87. Special issue with essays by Berhard Johannes Blume, Germano Celant, Bice Curinger, Patrick Frey, Karen Marta, Jeanne Silverthorne, and Sidra Stitch. |
