The Way Things Work

Environmental & Science Education, Literacy, Art & Environment
 

Edward Hessler

The New Yorker art critic Peter Schjeldahl reviews and describes a show at the Guggenheim Museum, New York City that features the work of Peter Fischli and David Weiss in the February 29, 2016 issue of The New Yorker.  This show is appropriately featured on the Museum's ramp.

You may respond with a "Huh?" "Who?"  I did.  Their names eluded me but the picture at the top was familar and the caption the clincher.  These are the guys who made a well known and loved film, The Way Things Work (1987).  Schjeldahl describes this bit of whimsy as made of "jury-rigged structures of common objects--chairs, tires, barrels, plastic bags, ladders, kitchenware, ropes, thread, balloons, wagons, lots of improvised carpentry--come to sequential grief..."  Fischli and Weiss used gravity and, of course, viewer pleasing, "fire, water, air, and explosive, slippery, and corrosive" agents.  

Not to be done at home, with or without supervision!

The film may seen here.

Schjeldahl was born in Fargo, North Dakota but grew up in small towns in Minnesota.  He attended Carleton College where he was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, at the Carleton College commencement on June 13, 2015.