The 59th Minute: Cat Drinking Milk
Fischli & Weiss
April 16-May 20, 2001
Times Square
Photo © 2001 Fischli and Weiss
Since the late 1970s, Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss have collaborated in producing cunning, devious, and very funny works that play with viewers expectations of the everyday. In their video for Creative Time’s The 59th Minute, Fischli and Weiss elevated the common house cat to near mythic status as the heart of the spectacular imagery of Times Square. Past works include sculptures made from cocktail sausages, installations of painstakingly refabricated construction materials, and a manic film depicting a perpetual-motion machine created from the contents of their studio. This delightful sense of irony comes through in The 59th Minute as they monumentalize the domesticated house cat.