''Rock on Top of Another Rock'' is a sculpture by the artists

Peter Fischli and David Weiss Peter Fischli (born 8 June 1952) and David Weiss (21 June 1946 – 27 April 2012), often shortened to Fischli/Weiss, were a Switzerland, Swiss artist duo that collaborated beginning in 1979. Their best-known work is the film ''Der Lauf der D ...

which was exhibited outside the

Serpentine Gallery The Serpentine Galleries are two contemporary art galleries in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Central London. Recently rebranded to just Serpentine, the organisation is split across Serpentine South, previously known as the Serpentine Gallery, ...

Kensington Gardens Kensington Gardens, once the private gardens of Kensington Palace, are among the Royal Parks of London. The gardens are shared by the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and sit immediately to the west of Hyde P ...

in 2013. It consists of one large rock

balanced In telecommunications and professional audio, a balanced line or balanced signal pair is a circuit consisting of two conductors of the same type, both of which have equal impedances along their lengths and equal impedances to ground and to other ...

on top of another large rock. An earlier incarnation of the work was a similar sculpture on the plateau of

Valdresflya Valdresflye, also spelled Valdresflya and Valdresflyi, is a mountain plateau in the easternmost part of the Jotunheimen mountains in Norway. The plateau lies in Innlandet county, mostly in Øystre Slidre Municipality, but a small area extends in ...

which was one of the artworks installed on each of Norway's eighteen scenic highways.

Inspiration

The motto of Fischli and Weiss is "''Am schönsten ist das Gleichgewicht, kurz bevor's zusammenbricht''" — balance is most beautiful just at the point when it is about to collapse. Fischli spoke about the work at its unveiling in March 2013:

In Norway and here, to put one rock on top of another rock in the wilderness is the first thing you do if you want to make a mark. When you walk and you want to find your way back...you make this mark. It is a very archaic, simple thing, but it is referencing the Venturi
duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form t ...
. We wanted to make something that forces you to stop your car and get out to take a photograph.

Construction

The first incarnation of the work was constructed for the Norwegian Public Roads Administration which commissioned artworks for its 18 tourist routes. The artists used a picture of a toy

Playmobil Playmobil () is a German line of toys produced by the Brandstätter Group (Geobra Brandstätter GmbH & Co KG), headquartered in Zirndorf, Germany. The signature Playmobil toy is a tall (1:24 scale) human figure with a smiling face. A wide range ...

crane lifting a large rock to illustrate their proposal, which was to place one large rock on top of another. This would be in the style of a wayfarer's

cairn A cairn is a man-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the gd, càrn (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehis ...

— a marker to show that someone had passed this way — but on a grand, monumental scale. In that case, the lower rock was already in place, and a real crane was used to place another rock on top of it. The two granite boulders used for the Serpentine work were natural rocks deposited by glacial action in North Wales. They weighed almost 30 tons each so their exact shape was mapped using

lidar Lidar (, also LIDAR, or LiDAR; sometimes LADAR) is a method for determining ranges (variable distance) by targeting an object or a surface with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected light to return to the receiver. It can also be ...

and then 3D models were constructed to determine a position in which they would balance without aid. This work was led by Alice Blair of the Arup engineering consultancy. The installation in London is temporary, as it was planned to be moved to its permanent site in

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the coun ...

after a year. The exhibition in London was extended until September 2014 and complemented the new

Serpentine Pavilion The Serpentine Galleries are two contemporary art galleries in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Central London. Recently rebranded to just Serpentine, the organisation is split across Serpentine South, previously known as the Serpentine Gallery, ...

Smiljan Radic Smiljan Radic (born June 21, 1965, Santiago) is an internationally recognised Chilean architect of Croatian heritage.lthoughin the end, it's a rock". Director

Hans-Ulrich Obrist Hans Ulrich Obrist (born 1968) is a Swiss art curator, critic, and historian of art. He is artistic director at the Serpentine Galleries, London. Obrist is the author of ''The Interview Project'', an extensive ongoing project of interviews. He is ...

has been enthusiastic about Fischli and Weiss' work since seeing their photographic exhibition, ''Equilibres/Quiet Afternoon'', which was created in 1984 and is still on display at the gallery. He sees their new work as a

meeting point Meeting Point (Chinese: 匯點) was a liberal political organisation and party in Hong Kong formed by a group of former student activists in the 1970s and intellectuals for the discussion for the Sino-British negotiation on the question of Hong ...

, "We can meet each other beneath the rocks and talk about a rock on top of another rock." Author John Costella praised the "sheer dynamics of its size and balance. The Swiss artists ... are to be applauded for their amazing sculpture."

References

External links

{{gbmapping, TQ 2673 7995
Steinplassen
— Gallery of pictures of the sister work in Norway 2013 sculptures Glacial erratics of Great Britain Installation art works Outdoor sculptures in London

Inspiration

Construction

See also

References

External links