The Magnetic Force of Urs Fischer’s Life-Size Metallic Rhinoceros

Things stands poised as the singular sculpture in a new installation by Swiss artist Urs Fischer, yet like its title might suggest, the lone work is composed of several disparate parts. At the piece’s core stands a life-size aluminum copy of a rhinoceros with a magnetic presence that has attracted several man-made objects into its grand orbit. A vacuum cleaner, step stool, toilet, car door, and frying pan all cling to its wrinkled metallic skin.

The work questions one’s attraction to and use of everyday objects, considering how and what we accumulate as we move through our individualized worlds. “‘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,” says Fischer in a press release about Things. “But that’s its strength, of course.”

The massive aluminum work is on view at a disused bank at 511 Fifth Avenue in midtown Manhattan through June 23, 2018. This installation coincides with Fischer’s exhibition of new paintings titled Sōtatsu, which also runs through June 23 at Gagosian Gallery‘s 980 Madison Avenue location.