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Art with impact

Roman Signer gives Dadaism an explosive force
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By Tony Ozuna
For The Prague Post
October 10th, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Books are just one of type of object under assault in Signer's action videos.
Roman Signer: Travel Pictures

at Langhans Galerie Ends Nov. 11. Vodičkova 37, Prague 1–New Town. Open Tues.–Sun. noon–6 p.m.

Roman Signer’s “Travel Pictures” is an atypical exhibition for Langhans Gallery, which is generally devoted to photography. That’s because Signer’s several dozen travel photos seem only a complement or accessory to the majority of other works in the show.
Born in 1930 in Switzerland, Signer is among the most respected artists working today in that country. This exhibit, his first in the Czech Republic, includes not only his photos, but also several kinetic sculptures and a good number of videos and photos documenting his countless “action sculptures.”
The exhibit opens with a series of untitled photos from the beautifully stark and isolated northland of Iceland (from 1993–2005), along with one image from the United States (1997) of steam rising through a manhole cover.
In the same room, four of Signer’s recent “actions” are showing on video: Office Chair (2006) shows the artist spinning around on an office swivel chair, propelled by fireworks rockets; Old Shatterhand (2007) shows him tied to a gut-shaking exercise machine while aiming a revolver at a tin can across the room; Hayfever (2006) shows him sitting in a room reading while hay is being shot into the air through a hole in the floor; and Dot (2006) shows him sitting at a canvas on a grass lawn, interrupted by an explosion just as he begins to paint.
There are noisier actions going on upstairs. One kinetic sculpture has two fans blowing a blue steel barrel back and forth across the floor, while another uses a single fan on the ground to blow a suspended bottle of Czech rum (Božkov tuzemský) around in circle. There are also photos documenting an action from 2004 titled Propeller, with the custom-built title object hanging from the ceiling.
In other rooms there are untitled photos from Signer’s travels in Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America. A series of his most exotic-looking photos, though, is a trick: Kamor (1986) consists of super-8 film stills of Kamor, a mountain peak in the Alps made to look like an active volcano with the help of a pile of gunpowder and a battery-operated detonator.
The uppermost room of the exhibit contains 18 more sculptural actions captured on video, including Floating in a Box (1999), which shows a remote-controlled model helicopter in a dim haze flying in place or just banging up against a wall, finally landing and then spinning around on the ground until the battery apparently runs dead and it falls on its side.
Sand on Radio (1998) is just what the title suggests: Sand is slowly poured over a portable radio until it is rendered both inaudible and no longer visible, except for its long antenna. Cabin (1999) shows Signer, wearing a helmet, sitting inside a makeshift one-room cabin, apparently built in his studio. Suddenly there’s an explosion and black paint is splattered across the room and all over the artist. When he leaves, his profile remains outlined in splattered paint.
In Kayak (2000), Signer sits in a kayak being pulled down a paved road by a truck. At one point he races a herd of cows. The trip ends when a hole finally wears through the bottom of the kayak.
One can only cheer the Dadaist antics of Signer amid the pristine landscape of the Swiss Alps. In an interview with Paula van den Bosch for Phaidra, the artist says, “I’m interested in movement, explosive force, speed, processes. The explosive itself is a sculpture in its own right.”
For more insight on such thinking, there will be a lecture on Czech action art at the gallery Oct. 18 by art historian Pavlina Morganová.
It must be a breathtaking experience to witness Signer’s actions in person, as he seems to be part artist, part mad scientist or maybe a mechanical engineer gone mad. A thick three-volume publication (2003) nicely documents all of his works over the past 30 years.
In another life, or perhaps if Signer had grown up in Hollywood, he may have become a daredevil stuntman. Since he was raised in the isolated and bucolic Swiss Alps, he wound up becoming one of the most engaging, and maybe the most explosive, contemporary artists of our times.

Tony Ozuna can be reached at features@praguepost.com


Other articles in Night & Day (10/10/2007):

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