Sculpting in Time

Roman Signer

Curated by Leonhard Emmerling and Brian Butler

ARTSPACE and ST PAUL ST were proud to present an exhibition by Swiss artist Roman Signer. This was the first solo exhibition of Signer’s work in the Southern Hemisphere and coincides with the artist’s 70th birthday in 2008.

Unlike previous exhibitions, Sculpting in Time concentrates solely on Signer’s films. All the works in the exhibition were conceived as film works, not as documentation of the artist’s (performative) events. In this exhibition the film was primary and the event secondary.

Initiated by ST PAUL ST, the exhibition was shown at ARTSPACE and ST PAUL ST with two works showing at Window (located in the foyer of the University of Auckland’s General Library) and in the window of Porcelain World on the corner of Karangahape Road and Symonds Street, courtesy of the Langham Hotel.

Roman Signer (born 1938) lives and works in St. Gallen, Switzerland. Major projects include Sculpture Projects Münster, 1997 and the Swiss Pavilion, 48th Venice Biennale, 1999. Recent solo exhibitions include Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, and Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin. In 2006 Signer was awarded Kunstpreis Aachen, Ludwig Forum, Aachen, Germany.

A book with essays by Brian D. Butler and Leonhard Emmerling was published in conjunction with the exhibition. In this book, authors Butler and Emmerling developed a new interpretation by concentrating on the film works and by attempting to shed light on the temporal aspect of the work of Roman Signer using literature and philosophy.

Texts and editing by Brian Butler and Leonhard Emmerling
Published and distributed by Kerber Verlag
March 2008
ISBN: 978-3-86678-150-4