Watch out Manhattan, rhinoceros are heading to midtown! Gagosian Gallery, in conjunction with artist Urs Fischer, has unveiled a life-size aluminum rhinoceros entitled Things at 511 Fifth Avenue. The work will be up through June 23, 2018. The piece is a response to 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.”
In addition to Things, Urs Fischer is also presenting Sōtatsu, a new painting in nine parts. On the occasion of Fischer’s latest exhibition, we take a look back at his 2013 project at the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles.
From MOCA:
For YES, 2013, artist Urs Fischer invited one thousand five hundred Southern California residents to fill the space of The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA with clay sculptures of their own creation, turning process into product, and artist into collaborator. The aim was to bring together a multitude of individual styles; no previous knowledge of working with clay was necessary, just an interest in working in three dimensions.
As the sculptures harden, crumble, and collapse into dust, YES demonstrates Fischer’s interest in ephemeral and self-destructing works on a mass scale. This behind-the-scenes footage captures the project’s ten-day realization, from unloading of bricks of clay into the galleries, to the preparation of meals that sustained Fischer’s volunteer collaborators as they molded creatures, figures, and forms. YES is presented by The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) as part of URS FISCHER, the first comprehensive museum retrospective in the United States of works by the internationally acclaimed Swiss-born artist.