Plotzlich diese ubersicht

Plötzlich diese Übersicht by the Swiss artists Peter Fischli (1952) and David Weiss (1946-2012), a loose collection of over 350 unfired, hand-made clay figures, is one of those works of art that everyone knows, even if they’re not really interested in art. The artists have succeeded in creating plastic ‘snapshots’ sparkling with wit and serenity from a totally antispectacular material: everyday situations and objects modelled in the manner of a sketch, which, when reproduced in clay, reveal the absurdity and constructed normality of the ordinary. Alongside these are scenes and events imagined in a semi-freewheeling way, drawn from history, culture, entertainment, sport and the diffuse memory of one’s own biography, and materialised in stagings formed of signs. The titles, imbued with subtle derision, fragmentary encyclopaedic knowledge and serious irony, are an integral part of the work. The artist’s book provides a glimpse of the ‘big picture’, and the excellent illustrations reveal the sculptural aspect of this multi-part work, begun in 1981, whose quality and undiminished topicality lie not only in the underlying humour of its language and formal research.