Two exhibitions
dal 22/5/2007 al 13/7/2007
Segnalato da
22/5/2007
Two exhibitions
Swiss Institute - Old location, New York
Artist books, special editions and multiples that have accompanied Fischli and Weiss's projects of the past 30 years. This archive of printed matter, including proofs and storyboards for their publications and films, at once illustrates and constitutes a part of the artists' oeuvre; through it one can trace the path of their creative process from concept to prototype and back again. Julika Rudelius: a presentation of her new two-channel video installation 'Forever'.
FISCHLI/WEISS
BOOKS, EDITIONS AND THE LIKE
Since the beginning of their collaboration, Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss have given special consideration to the many artist books, special
editions and multiples that have accompanied their projects of the past thirty
years. This rich and ever-expanding archive of printed matter, including proofs
and storyboards for their publications and films, at once illustrates and
constitutes a part of the artists’ oeuvre; through it one can trace the path of
their creative process from concept to prototype and back again.
For their seminal 1982 publication, Suddenly this Overview, represented here by
the loose sheets of an early catalogue proof, Fischli/Weiss mounted and titled
by hand photographic plates of the 180 clay sculptures that comprise the
series. When the artists later required these images for other publications,
they simply tore them from the original mockup, leaving blank pages as evidence
of their unpretentiously cannibalistic practice. Despite advances in digital
technology, Fischli/Weiss’ design process has remained remarkably true to its
do-it-yourself origins. Their recent catalogue Equilibres was also composed on
loose sheets of paper, and while the artists now work with laser-printed color
photographs, they continue to annotate their preliminary designs by hand.
Taken as a whole, the material selected for Books, Editions and the Like
reveals a process of composition at work in the most menial aspects of
Fischli/Weiss’ practice. In planning their projection-based project Questions,
for instance, the artists developed a score-like notation for sequencing
constellations of such seemingly unrelated questions as “WHY DOES THE EARTH
TURN ON ITS AXIS EVERY DAY?,” “CAN ONE THINK OF EVERYTHING?,” and “AM I THE
SLEEPING-BAG OF MY SOUL?” In turn, Fischli/Weiss’ ongoing examination of
questions and of the practice of questioning resulted in the release of one of
book-publisher Walther König’s most popular editions, the pocket-sized book
Will Happiness Find Me?, which presents the artists’ selection of unanswerable
questions with a characteristic mix of highbrow irony and lo-fi design.
On view at the Swiss Institute, this comprehensive collection of printed matter
by Fischli/Weiss is augmented by a selection of their exhibition posters and
video works, including The Way Things Go, Kitty, and a new cut of The Right
Way. Books, Editions and the Like is timed to coincide with the artists’
upcoming retrospective at Kunsthaus Zurich and their solo exhibition at Matthew
Marks Gallery, New York.
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JULIKA RUDELIUS
FOREVER
Julika Rudelius' solo exhibition at the Swiss Institute will be the
first U.S. presentation of her new two-channel video installation
FOREVER, which she filmed in the Hamptons, the summer retreat of New
York's high society, in 2006.
Based in New York and Amsterdam, Rudelius uses video to stage intimate,
often disquieting monologues, interviews and enactments, in which her
subjects hold forth on their most private – and often embarrassing -
thoughts and opinions. Whether condemning the poor for their neediness,
discussing the merits of luxury-brand clothing or relating trumped-up
tales of sexual exploits, her characters perform according to the
scripts of their own vulnerability.
In FOREVER, Rudelius casts five American women, selected for their age
and particular physical beauty, who pose for the camera around swimming
pools at private homes in the Hamptons. Lounging on poolside chairs and
pacing around manicured backyards, the women are interviewed – although
Rudelius' questions are withheld – on topics ranging from beauty and
privilege to plastic surgery and aging. These introspective
soliloquies, suffused with unstated fears and anxieties, are punctuated
by the women taking self-portraits with a polaroid camera. Tracing a
path between pathos and critical realism, FOREVER succeeds as
portraiture and as an image of the genre itself.
Image: Fischli and Weiss, Still from The Least Resistance, 1981
The Swiss Institute is pleased to present this exhibition in cooperation with
Sitterwerk, St. Gallen.
For more information please contact Gianni Jetzer jet@swissinstitute.net - Daniel Marcus daniel@swissinstitute.net
Swiss Institute [SI]
495 Broadway 3rd Floor New York NY 10012
Directions: Broadway between Broome and Spring Streets
Subway: N/R to Prince Street, 6 to Spring Street
Wheelchair accessible
Gallery Opening Hours:
Tuesday through Saturday 11 am - 6 pm
FREE entry