Peter Fischli & David Weiss

The Swiss artist duo Peter Fischli and David Weiss depict subtle interactions between everyday objects, materials and symbols, often by using irony, slapstick humor and a play with illusion and change. A range of media, not only photography, films, books and texts, but also multimedia-installations, slide projections and sculpture make out their practice. As quotidian dramas are self-reflectively brought into this wide ranging art arena, Fischli and Weiss raise questions about how we perceive the world around us and where the border can be drawn between the ordinary and the extraordinary, between order and chaos. The silent video Büsi (Kitty) (2001) features a cat drinking milk from a saucer in domestic surroundings. With its familiar motif and nonchalant framing it mimics the footage of a pet home-video, yet the high-definition quality of the film suggests it could also be a pet food ad. Büsi was exhibited the first time on a monumental scale in New York's Times Square as part of a public art program, a location normally reserved commercials. Fischli and Weiss changed the context of the art work in a simple, yet uncanny way, thereby challenging the viewer's expectations of what art is.