FISCHLI & WEISS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 17, 2012
communications@yaleunion.org
(503) 236-7996
The Right Way, a Fischli & Weiss film presentation
Join Yale Union on Thursday, August 9, 2012 at 8pm for a screening of The Right Way, a film by Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss- a final program to conclude the exhibition STEINBERG, SAUL. THE NEW YORKER. NEW YORK, 1945–2000. (HAROLD, WILLIAM, ROBERT, TINA, DAVID, EDS.).
The Right Way (1982) features Fischli & Weiss dressed in rented bear and rat costumes, reprising their roles of Rat and Bear from their first film The Point of Least Resistance (1981)- an avant-garde murder mystery set in LA. In this sequel, the artists embark on an epic hike through the Swiss Alps, and soon find themselves at the mercy of nature, not to mention their often-fractious relationship and philosophical debates, as they try to make sense out of their experiences and the seeming chaos of the world.
Peter Fischli (b. 1952) and the late David Weiss (1946-2012) began their collaboration in 1979. The New York Times called them “the merry pranksters of contemporary art”, their collaboration included sculpture, photography, drawing, art books, video and multimedia installations, often using everyday objects. Like Saul Steinberg, they were Europeans who lived and worked in America and responded to American ideals with a sense of irony and humor. Some critics likened them to a slapstick comedy duo, a la Laurel and Hardy; Fischli & Weiss saw their work as amusing interpretations of their daily experiences. In Fischli’s words: “We do take steps to show things in their true light. Which is also what makes it interesting: we don’t want to be rid of it altogether, but we don’t want to leave it as it is either. That’s true of many of our works: we want to take things out of the niche where they belong and transport them somewhere else, but without denying their origins. It is about taking but also about giving back”
Fischli and Weiss won the Golden Lion prize at the 2003 Venice Biennale, representing Switzerland, for Questions, an installation of over 1,000 photographic slides of handwritten existential questions the artists had collected over many years. Their works are held, among others, in the collections of the Tate, the Guggenheim, the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, the Kunsthaus Zurich, and the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin.
STEINBERG, SAUL. THE NEW YORKER. NEW YORK, 1945–2000. (HAROLD, WILLIAM, ROBERT, TINA, DAVID, EDS.)
SCREENING: The Right Way (1982), by Fischli & Weiss
Thursday, August 9, 8pm; at Yale Union
EXHIBITION OPEN HOURS
June 16–August 10, 2012
Thursday–Saturday 12–8pm