The Way Things Go

Duration: 30

Year Published: 1987

Creator: Hans-Ulrich Jordi

Format: 16mm

Color: Color

Description: Records an ambitious kinetic installation by Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss, which consists of a 100-foot chain reaction of ordinary objects moving, filling, rolling, spilling, exploding, bubbling and falling. Illustrates "controlled unpredictability" as it builds from an assortment of tires, ladders, boards, candles, balloons, bottles, and bags--a continuum of motion propelled by the elemental means of fire and fireworks, blasts of air, gravity, and corrosive liquids. Removes objects from the context of daily life and, without resorting to caricature or anthropomorphism, delves into the mechanisms that animate the physical universe.