Balancing one rock on top of another is something instinctively human. When each rock weighs 27 tonnes, the game becomes a little more serious – but it is still fundamentally about understanding how centres of gravity align over contact points.
Originally installed in the Serpentine Gallery and now at its permanent home in Doha, Fischli & Weiss’s artwork consists of two found rocks stacked with no fixings between them.
We assisted Qatar Museums and Mtec Fine Art by cataloguing the three-dimensional geometry of both boulders. Hidden within the undulating upper surface are three high points which, when lowered onto the lower rock, form a stable support plane. The weight of the upper rock then shifts the combined centre of gravity over three further peaks on the underside of the rocks.
By understanding the precise size and position of these two interfaces, we were able to determine the exact installation orientation and demonstrate that the upper rock achieves sufficient stability to remain safely in place – even under significant wind and seismic loading.
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