2002 ushered in the large scale, stroboscopic zoetropes for which Peter has become known. Sisyphish mesmerized festival participants and was featured in the Bill Breithaupt film Aqua Burn, putting Peter on the radar of the international art festival scene. In addition to Burning Man, Sisyphish, which depicts strobe-lighted swimmers in motion, has been installed in San Francisco, Nelson Canada for the Shambhala music festival as well as the Big Chill festival in Malvern England. It also has the distinct honor of introducing the audience to Gone Off Deep Production’s Burning Man: Beyond Black Rock.
Combining technology, human will and the laws of nature, Sisyphish ponders the human capacity for individual and collective struggle despite constant futility. Although each swimmer looks identical and homogenous from afar, closeup each one carries their own belief, vision, and destiny. grounded on the wheel of life, their struggle (if not their hope?) is irrevocably one and the same. Despite constant effort and motion, the swimmers never reach an imagined shore or destination.