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Lot Essay
"Fiasco as a poetic raison d'etre" is how Roman Signer's various actions and sculptures have been described. Well-known for his performances involving pyrotechnics, explosives, and mundane, everyday objects, Signer is a preeminent figure in Europe, whose influence on a whole generation of young continental artists is clearly established.
His actions, in which objects like balloons, buckets, a canoe, a bicycle, and a rifle, are subjected to processes of movement or material transformation, are often staged against the idyllic and seemingly immutable countryside backdrop of his native Switzerland. The temporal actions pit the artist against the elements as he, for instance, futilely tries to outrun a firing rocket, inevitably loosing the race. There is an unmistakable measure of glee in Roman Signer's work, which is tempered with the potential of disaster, and he is like a child whose new chemistry set may possibly set the house on fire.
The wheel as metaphor for Sisyphean endeavor is a major theme in Signer's work. While 2 Räder inevitably recalls Duchamp's Bicycle Wheel and Rotoreliefs, Signer's pairing of two wheels also brings to mind the Red Duchess's admonition to Alice about running as fast as possible in order to stay in one place. The electrified wheel trumps the bicycle wheel, which requires human toil to set it in motion, but also potentially becomes the latter's power source, only to spin on indefinitely, getting nowhere.
His actions, in which objects like balloons, buckets, a canoe, a bicycle, and a rifle, are subjected to processes of movement or material transformation, are often staged against the idyllic and seemingly immutable countryside backdrop of his native Switzerland. The temporal actions pit the artist against the elements as he, for instance, futilely tries to outrun a firing rocket, inevitably loosing the race. There is an unmistakable measure of glee in Roman Signer's work, which is tempered with the potential of disaster, and he is like a child whose new chemistry set may possibly set the house on fire.
The wheel as metaphor for Sisyphean endeavor is a major theme in Signer's work. While 2 Räder inevitably recalls Duchamp's Bicycle Wheel and Rotoreliefs, Signer's pairing of two wheels also brings to mind the Red Duchess's admonition to Alice about running as fast as possible in order to stay in one place. The electrified wheel trumps the bicycle wheel, which requires human toil to set it in motion, but also potentially becomes the latter's power source, only to spin on indefinitely, getting nowhere.