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Over the past three decades, the Swiss artist Roman Signer has exhibited his work in hundreds of solo and group exhibitions and public performances around the world. At The Fruitmarket Gallery, Signer conceived an exhibition of new and recent sculptures, films and installations. For Signer, each work is an event, an experiment in which a force such as wind, water, gravity or fire transforms everyday things like umbrellas and plastic bags. In all of his work, Signer proposes new relationships between ordinary objects and elements brought together in extraordinary ways.

Born in Appenzell, Switzerland, Signer started his career as an artist later in life at the age of 28, after working as an architect’s draughtsman, a radio engineer apprentice, and a short stint in a pressure cooker factory. His work has grown out of, and has affinities with both land art and performance art, but they are not typically representative of either category.

Most of the work in this exhibition was made after 2002, with several works made specially for this exhibition. Signer selected and installed it himself. A rhythmic presentation of films, installation and sculptures, the exhibition immersed its viewers in the sights and sounds of Signer’s artistic universe. At once surprising, humorous, and melancholic, Signer’s works are visually simple but emotionally and conceptually complex.

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