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Urs Fischer

Things

May 15–June 23, 2018
New York

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Installation view of Things (2017) Artwork © Urs Fischer. Photo: Stefan Altenburger

Installation view of Things (2017)

Artwork © Urs Fischer. Photo: Stefan Altenburger

Installation view of Things (2017) Artwork © Urs Fischer. Photo: Stefan Altenburger

Installation view of Things (2017)

Artwork © Urs Fischer. Photo: Stefan Altenburger

Installation view of Things (2017) Artwork © Urs Fischer. Photo: Stefan Altenburger

Installation view of Things (2017)

Artwork © Urs Fischer. Photo: Stefan Altenburger

Installation view of Things (2017) Artwork © Urs Fischer. Photo: Stefan Altenburger

Installation view of Things (2017)

Artwork © Urs Fischer. Photo: Stefan Altenburger

Installation view of Things (2017) (detail) Artwork © Urs Fischer. Photo: Stefan Altenburger

Installation view of Things (2017) (detail)

Artwork © Urs Fischer. Photo: Stefan Altenburger

About

“Art” has always been a word for this thing that can’t be rationalized, when you see or hear something that you struggle to explain. But that’s its strength, of course.
—Urs Fischer

Gagosian is pleased to present Things by Urs Fischer at 511 Fifth Avenue, New York.

Amid the bustle of midtown Manhattan, a rhinoceros can be glimpsed through tall, arched windows at street level. Various man-made objects—including a copy machine, a car door, a handbag, a vacuum cleaner, a shovel, and a table—seem to float right through the creature, as if released from Earth’s gravitational pull. Carved out of aluminum, this barrage of incongruous items forms a single, continuous unit, anchored by the rhinoceros, which stands its ground. Produced at life size from a 3D scan of a taxidermy animal, its furrowed visage looms from a height of more than ten feet.

Things considers the ways that objects and forces—from plastic bottles and Wi-Fi signals to memories, history, and emotion—gather around and pass through our bodies as we move through the world, creating countless versions of reality that are specific to each of us. Like the rhinoceros, we absorb all that comes into our vicinity, and in the process we ourselves undergo a constant, often undetectable metamorphosis. Existence itself is thus presented as an accumulation, a collective gathering of physical and metaphorical baggage.

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News

Photo: Chad Moore

Artist Spotlight

Urs Fischer

June 24–30, 2020

Urs Fischer mines the potential of materials—from clay, steel, and paint to bread, dirt, and produce—to create works that disorient and bewilder. Through scale distortions, illusion, and the juxtaposition of common objects, his paintings, sculptures, photographs, and large-scale installations explore themes of perception and representation while maintaining a witty irreverence and mordant humor.

Photo: Chad Moore