Rock on Top of Another Rock facts for kids

A large rock balanced on another rock.

Rock on Top of Another Rock is a cool sculpture created by artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss. It was shown outside the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens, London, in 2013. The sculpture is exactly what its name says: one very large rock carefully placed on top of another large rock. Before this one, a similar sculpture was made in Valdresflya, a high, flat area in Norway. That first version was part of a project to put artworks along Norway's eighteen beautiful tourist roads.

What Inspired the Artists?

The artists, Fischli and Weiss, have a special saying: "Am schönsten ist das Gleichgewicht, kurz bevor's zusammenbricht." This means "balance is most beautiful just before it falls apart." This idea is key to understanding their rock sculpture.

When Fischli talked about the artwork in 2013, he explained their thinking. He said that putting one rock on top of another in nature is a very old way to leave a mark. People have done this for ages to show they've been somewhere or to mark a path. It's a simple, ancient idea.

The artists also wanted to create something that would make people stop and take a picture. They wanted it to be so eye-catching that you couldn't just drive past it.

How the Sculpture Was Built

Building the First Rock Sculpture

The first version of Rock on Top of Another Rock was made for the Norwegian Public Roads Administration. This group asked artists to create artworks for Norway's 18 tourist routes.

Fischli and Weiss showed their idea using a picture of a toy Playmobil crane lifting a big rock. Their plan was to place one huge rock on top of another. They wanted it to look like a giant cairn. A cairn is a pile of stones used as a marker, often by hikers. But their version would be much, much bigger! For the Norwegian sculpture, the bottom rock was already there, and a real crane was used to lift the second rock onto it.

Building the London Rock Sculpture

The two huge rocks used for the London sculpture came from North Wales. They are natural granite boulders that were moved there by glaciers a long, long time ago. Each rock weighed almost 30 tons!

To make sure the rocks would balance safely without any extra support, engineers used special technology. They used lidar (which uses lasers to measure distances) to map the exact shape of the boulders. Then, they made 3D computer models to figure out the perfect spot for them to balance. This tricky work was led by Alice Blair from Arup, an engineering company.

The sculpture in London was only temporary at first. It was planned to move to its permanent home in Doha after about a year. However, the exhibition in London was extended until September 2014. It was shown alongside the new Serpentine Pavilion by Smiljan Radic, which also featured large boulders.

Images for kids

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  The Rock on Top of Another Rock sculpture from another angle.