Fischli and Weiss\u2019s retrospective exhibition presents a body of work that developed during their thirty-three-year collaboration, from 1979 until Weiss\u2019s death in 2012. Arranged along the Guggenheim\u2019s curved ramp in a non-chronological logic, the works embrace contradictions, destabilize false dichotomies, and unravel popular opposites. We are greeted by Rat and Bear (Sleeping)<\/em> (2008), a sculpture of Fischli and Weiss\u2019s alter-egos: the omnipresent rodent and the endangered panda whose adventures and misadventures have appeared in the duo\u2019s films since the 1980s. The two tattered stuffed animals are sleeping by the entrance of the exhibition, their bellies rising and falling with every mechanical breath. The exhibition\u2019s title, How to Work Better<\/em>, is taken from a curious list of motivational instructions Fischli and Weiss found pinned up in a Thai ceramics factory, which is recreated as a public mural at the corner of Houston and Mott streets in Soho. As our waking hours are oriented around productivity and efficiency, divisions between rest\/work and labour\/leisure become increasingly blurred. Oblivious to the chaotic bustle that surrounds their peaceful slumber, Rat and Bear perform the work of unproductivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The artists\u2019 collaboration began with Sausage Series<\/em> (1979), photographs of scenes created with things found lying around in Weiss\u2019s apartment. In At the Carpet Shop,<\/em> three gherkin pickles are interested in purchasing a carpet made of a slice of processed meat, and in Fashion Show<\/em>, sausages dressed in cold-cut skirts wear little hats made of bottle caps while modelling on a makeshift runway. Disrupting the ways in which we usually create hierarchies and categorize objects, Fischli and Weiss\u2019s works seem to have emerged like the constructions we might fabricate from creamers and breadsticks while waiting for our food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The extraordinary The Way Things Go<\/em> (1987) presents a carefully choreographed and sometimes catastrophic sequence of chain reactions in which objects such as ladders, tires, balloons and wheels fall, roll, explode and tumble independently of an acting subject. A pair of shoes set in motion by a rolling cylinder totters down a ramp. Here, human subjects do not figure as masters of material objects. As things hesitate and wait for their turn and go\u200a\u2014\u200aflaming, sparking, expanding and bubbling\u200a\u2014\u200awe anticipate and are often surprised by their reaction. As we watch the slow burst of a balloon or the explosion of a set of firecrackers igniting a puddle of oil, we are reminded that things go suddenly, gently, and always in their own time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Significant, trivial, and ridiculous events in the history of the world are given equal weight in Suddenly This Overview<\/em> (1981\u200a\u2013\u200a2012), a desultory encyclopedia of small unfired clay sculptures that are set on individual white plinths. The same clay is moulded to represent everyday objects and situations such as a loaf of bread and important or fantastical events like the invention of the miniskirtand the moment Jacques Lacan recognized his image for the first time in the mirror.<\/em> Undeniably handmade, the sculptures are rooted in the physical world; the unfinished nature of the unfired clay foregrounds their materiality and invites the possibility of being remodelled, which points to the open-ended nature of any attempt to map the world. Humorous and absurd, a series of \u201cPopular Opposites\u201d level seemingly contradictory categories: work and leisure, profane and profound, possible and impossible, order and chaos, and theory and praxis. Despite the abundance of objects and events represented, Suddenly This Overview<\/em> is decidedly not an overview, and the works ultimately underline the project\u2019s absurdity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the top of the museum\u2019s ramp, metaphysical inquiries such as \u201cAre there no limits to the impossible?\u201d and \u201cDo I have to imagine the universe as foam?\u201d are projected, appearing and disappearing in undulating patterns alongside everyday queries like \u201cAre my body juices ok?\u201d The endless questions, which waver between the whimsical, the philosophical, the mundane, and the odd, remain unanswered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What goes up must come down, isn\u2019t that the way things go? While the walk up the spiralling ramp is filled with de\u00adlightful discoveries, the walk down leaves us to reflect on over more than three decades of artistic collaboration. As we take one last look at the duo\u2019s photographs, sculptures, videos, and drawings, we realize that sometimes \u201cto work better\u201d is simply to work together. At the bottom of the ramp, Rat and Bear are still asleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Peter](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/88_CR06_Lynch_Fischli-Weiss_How-to-Work-Better-4-scaled.jpg\")
<\/strong>How to Work Better<\/em>, exhibition views, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2016.
Photo: David Heald, \u00a9 Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"Peter](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/88_CR06_Lynch_Fischli-Weiss_How-to-Work-Better-2-scaled.jpg\")
<\/strong>How to Work Better<\/em>, exhibition views, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2016.
Photo: David Heald, \u00a9 Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"Peter](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/88_CR06_Lynch_Fischli-Weiss_How-to-Work-Better-3-scaled.jpg\")
How to Work Better<\/em>, exhibition views, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2016.
Photo: David Heald, \u00a9 Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n