Exhibition in Focus | Vol.3 Roman Signer

Aktion Kurhaus, 1992©️Roman Signer

“What is true for chemistry—from the combination of basic elements something completely new emerges—is also true for Signer’s artworks.

(Swiss writer Armin Sensor)”

展评人Rorí和Sophia Kidd，在“罗曼·西格纳1975-1989影像展”，成都麓湖•A4美术馆 .

Who is Roman Signer and what does his work represent? Much like the art he creates, Signer is a man shrouded in silent mystery who composed most of his videos hidden away among the snowy mountains of St. Gallin, Switzerland. The exhibition Roman Signer Video & Film 1975-1989 offers neither an explanation for his craft nor a context for his audience in China. But then again, perhaps that’s the point.

🤵

Roman Signer 罗曼·西格纳

born 1938 in Appenzell, Switzerland

Shot mainly through Super 8 video film, this exhibition hosted by the A4 gallery in Chengdu features exactly what the title suggests and showcases 205 visual displays of everyday objects that range from the ordinary to the absurd. 

In the immense and cavernous A4 gallery, projectors rise from the ground like crashed satellites on a distant planet, forever forced to beam bizarre videos onto barren walls. Red balloons inflate and deflate, wrecking balls explode onto cold ice, black umbrellas burst with hydraulic force, and green fireworks explode with unbridled energy. 

Yet, despite the seemingly loud and destructive forces of the films being looped, the dark space remains completely silent. This generates a visual and auditory dissonance that only adds to the confusion one feels walking through the empty rooms. Like an astronaut trespassing in an alien laboratory, I couldn’t help but whisper as I moved from video to video.

In this manner, parallels can be drawn between Signer’s work and the scientific method. He uses everyday objects like umbrellas, balloons, chairs, and candles to represent the elements of earth, wind, fire, and water. As the Swiss writer Armin Sensor puts it: “What is true for chemistry—from the combination of basic elements something completely new emerges—is also true for Signer’s artworks.” 

Signer’s experimental attempts to fuse the artistic and the scientific process often results in humorous, almost slapstick results. 

带桶的气球 /Ballon with a Bucket,1980

小桌子/Small Table,1980

独木舟/Kayak, 1988

落入冰面 /Falling through the ice, 1985

In one video, a car can be seen veering wildly down a mountain pass, only to run over a small trigger that blows out an even smaller candle. In another video, Signer himself is seen slowly walking into a snow-covered field, before finally sinking up to his chest. 

However, unlike science that seeks to prove something through trail and error, Signor doesn’t seem to prove anything. Like a mad doctor, most of his artistic endeavors are isolated events and performed alone in his mountain home. His videos are not intended for public viewing, and are only documented in photos, films, and books. Donning white gloves and flipping through the pages of the various literatures on display serves as a fun, interactive aspect of this exhibition that further adds to the feeling of being in an absurd laboratory. 

So, why create art at all if not to display it for an audience? 

When I posed this question to U.S. artist, curator, and Associate Research Fellow at Sichuan University, Sophia Kidd, she simply looked at me and said, “Maybe that’s the point. Works like Signer's seem to debunk the intentional fallacy." Intentional fallacy is the misconception to judge a work of art solely based on what the artist’s intention is rather than an audience’s response to the actual work of art itself. This statement left me even more confused. Signer is not a performance artist or a land artist, an intellectual nor a fool. He seems to disregard artistic theory, yet he is still critically acclaimed around the globe. Much like Dr. Frankenstein, Roman Signer is either a true genius ahead of his time or a selfish artist who creates for the sake of creation, l'art pour l'art (Art for Art's sake). 

But at the end of the day I was forced to question:

Is there really a difference?

▲Video: “西格纳的行李箱 – Unterwegs mit Roman Signer” ，“椅子飞射实验”跳转至“02：05”.