Roman Signer
02 Nov 2007 - 27 Jan 2008
© Roman Signer
Office Chair (Bürostuhl) 2006 (detail), DVD, 1'03"
Camera: Tomasz Rogowiec, Editing: Aleksandra Signer
Office Chair (Bürostuhl) 2006 (detail), DVD, 1'03"
Camera: Tomasz Rogowiec, Editing: Aleksandra Signer
Roman Signer
Works
2 November 2007 – 27 January 2008
The Fruitmarket Gallery’s winter exhibition is a solo presentation of the work of Swiss artist Roman Signer. A major figure in international contemporary art since the early The Fruitmarket Gallery’s winter exhibition is a solo presentation of the work of Swiss artist Roman Signer, a major figure in international contemporary art. The exhibition is being devised by the artist especially for The Fruitmarket Gallery, and will include both new and existing work, offering Scottish audiences the opportunity to experience the often absurd experiments that form the basis of Signer’s artistic practice.
The highlights of Signer’s international career have been art events of great impact which nevertheless bear the light touch of the artist’s often deceptively humorous approach. For Documenta 8 in Kassel in 1987, Signer set explosive fuses along a line of stacks of A4 paper, blowing them up to form a wall of softly descending paper rain. Sculpture Projects Munster in 1997 included his Fontana di Piaggio - a tiny three-wheeled Italian truck converted into a mobile urban fountain. In 1999, he represented Switzerland at the 1999 Venice Biennale and made an installation that included 117 heavy lead balls which dropped from the ceiling to imprint their impression on blocks of clay beneath; a barrel filled with water rolling a destructive path through a field of upright wooden poles and a bicycle resting against a pillar, round which it had previously been cycled trailing a yellow ribbon in which it wrapped the pillar.
Signer’s art mixes performance with documentation, sculpture with video. He is primarily concerned with time, specifically the way we experience time. He refers to his actions as ‘events’ as always something is about to happen, is happening, has happened or could happen. The protagonist of most of his actions, he is rarely wholly absent from his work.
The Fruitmarket Gallery’s exhibition will include objects, installations and films. A major new work will bring together films of ten actions made over the course of his long career. The silent films of these singular experiments will be shown together with a new film of a Signer translating the actions into sign language, offering a visual translation of these curiously unsettling visual events.
www.fruitmarket.co.uk
Works
2 November 2007 – 27 January 2008
The Fruitmarket Gallery’s winter exhibition is a solo presentation of the work of Swiss artist Roman Signer. A major figure in international contemporary art since the early The Fruitmarket Gallery’s winter exhibition is a solo presentation of the work of Swiss artist Roman Signer, a major figure in international contemporary art. The exhibition is being devised by the artist especially for The Fruitmarket Gallery, and will include both new and existing work, offering Scottish audiences the opportunity to experience the often absurd experiments that form the basis of Signer’s artistic practice.
The highlights of Signer’s international career have been art events of great impact which nevertheless bear the light touch of the artist’s often deceptively humorous approach. For Documenta 8 in Kassel in 1987, Signer set explosive fuses along a line of stacks of A4 paper, blowing them up to form a wall of softly descending paper rain. Sculpture Projects Munster in 1997 included his Fontana di Piaggio - a tiny three-wheeled Italian truck converted into a mobile urban fountain. In 1999, he represented Switzerland at the 1999 Venice Biennale and made an installation that included 117 heavy lead balls which dropped from the ceiling to imprint their impression on blocks of clay beneath; a barrel filled with water rolling a destructive path through a field of upright wooden poles and a bicycle resting against a pillar, round which it had previously been cycled trailing a yellow ribbon in which it wrapped the pillar.
Signer’s art mixes performance with documentation, sculpture with video. He is primarily concerned with time, specifically the way we experience time. He refers to his actions as ‘events’ as always something is about to happen, is happening, has happened or could happen. The protagonist of most of his actions, he is rarely wholly absent from his work.
The Fruitmarket Gallery’s exhibition will include objects, installations and films. A major new work will bring together films of ten actions made over the course of his long career. The silent films of these singular experiments will be shown together with a new film of a Signer translating the actions into sign language, offering a visual translation of these curiously unsettling visual events.
www.fruitmarket.co.uk