Roman Signer

Roman Signer

Floating in a Box

07 May–25 June 201107 May–25 Jun 2011

Roman Signer’s ‘action sculptures’ involve setting up, carrying out, and filming explosions, collisions, and crashes. The Swiss artist’s absurd pseudo-scientific experiments offer a humorous spin on notions of cause-and-effect and scientific method. In Floating in a Box (1999), a model helicopter on a tether takes off inside a small wooden box, which quickly fills up with fumes. The helicopter is menacing, like a rabid dog on a leash, threatening to crash into the walls of its cell. Ultimately, this happens. As the motor keeps running, bits of the helicopter fly off, and the dismembered thing spasms in a protracted ‘death scene’.