Human begins as a testament to who we are will never stop searching for answers that would inevitably lead to the very question that has seemingly evaded us for as long as time has been perceived. How does nature really work? What is nature might be a question that Roman Signer would ask any seemingly supernatural or god like power? For this question has seemingly lead him all over the world to better understand its very own existence.
Signer as a performance artist constantly uses nature as a backdrop in his installations as a way to adapt and see what might become of his disturbances. What is he really searching? Peter Liechti’s Signers Koffer- Unterwegs mit Roman Signer (Signer’s Suitcase: On The Road with Roman Signer) has set out to capture Signer in his very own environment. One has to wonder if this is where Signer is at home. An element in particular that may cause the viewer to realize this fact is his performance installation seemingly out in the middle of nowhere.
Roman Signer slept in a tent with two monitors outside of his tent. Inside the tent along with Signer was an audio set up capturing the sounds of him snoring. The sounds of snoring were sent out through the monitors into the middle of nowhere. The snoring could be heard for miles. Shots of some of the wildlife were captured and the audio can be heard in the distance. The installation is clearly a metaphor for human begins as just another species on Earth. Of course we may not realize this because there is so much technology in our world that can cause us to forget that. Roman Signer is simply a reminder of who we really are, just another species in this big world.
This installation can be seen as a genesis behind the meaning of some of his other works. In most of his projects, man is compared against the world. The most simplistic of meanings might lead a viewer to see it as man vs the actual size of the world in which we live in. While, this is clearly evident, most of Signer’s work deals with metaphors beneath metaphors. There are elements that Signer uses in his man vs nature installations such as the ability to try and anger nature or to the very least disrupt it wondering what might become of the changes he is seemingly creating. Another element to his work that stood out was the fact that humans must adapt to sudden changes in nature.
Nature clearly never does what you want; it is a being in itself. One of Signer’s installations that deals with his matter is what I call “The Blocks of Life” which deals with Signer setting what looks like several clay like items on fire. What the viewer sees is that the blocks are contorting into different shapes, never contorting the same. So, Signer and the viewer are left with several different shapes that all have contorted into something else. This clearly must have some meaning in the fact that nature never does what one person wants. Signer very well could have had several people with him making sure the items were burned and shaped the same. The flame of life one could say. No one life is the same and one person cannot shape nature.
Could nature be defined as impervious? Will it never allow us to understand it completely? Signer’s performance installation that deals with the leaking gasoline is also quite compelling to look at further. It is rather quite simplistic from the outside, but I find that this is another case of a metaphor within a metaphor. As a side note, I would recommend looking at Matthew Barney’s work as it deals with metaphors within metaphors and is quite interesting and compelling.
The leaking gasoline as mentioned above is rather simplistic. However, the viewer can take this to mean that Signer is at it again, trying to possibly make a mark on nature and seeing the outcome. Someone could very well could have come along and struck a flame to the gasoline left behind. What would Signer accomplish then? Is the outcome strictly what he’s interested in?
Another element that Signer captures quite remarkably is the ability to experience landscapes driving at a certain speed and listening to certain music. Signer finds that the scenery contours as the drive continues. As the music continues, reaching its crescendo, the scenery becomes much more vibrant, providing Signer with an enjoyable experience. This can be seen as an installation that we all perform each day, but do we really take the time to notice our environments as we are traveling at a certain speed and listening to certain music? Are we subconsciously performing this installation? Signer clearly wants us to.
Signer as an artist deals a lot with experimenting with physics and its affect on nature. He seems transfixed on making changes to fit one needs, making the energy flow a certain direction. With this in mind, does man actually become a character of nature? Are we characters of nature? Nature seemingly writes the scripts and we adapt to its changes. It clearly does what it wants, performing certain tasks.
The installation on the bridge by far was the most compelling to me. Signer gives us details about how several people jumped and committed suicide, leaving behind their shoes as the only reminder that they were there and were met by an icy death. The viewer can only wonder what is going through his mind when it is destroyed. On this note, Signer’s installation with the white table floating reminded me of Jesus walking on water. Signer compared it to the melting of tongue and with that I was left with a metallic taste in my mouth. The table is floating through nature, up to nature’s path of where it leads. The mood of nature conveys night as Signer says. He compares it to the fact that darkness is only an absence of light and the mood of nature conveys either, simply waiting for a new day.It also seems that Signer is very interested in discovering man’s place in nature. Every object has life. Signer calls it breath of matter. This was quite interesting to listen to. “Every object fills up and then dies. Our mood affects nature. Green is never green”-Roman Signer. With this in mind can we as humans understand that we are a product of own environment. Time is simply floating by and is unstoppable.
"I look at myself as a machine, performing these tasks”- Roman Signer."
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