56 kleine Helikopter, 2008
Single channel video, full HD 16:9, 3’14’’. Colour, sound
Courtesy: Galerie Martin Janda, Vienna
Roman Signer is best known for his videos and photographs of rockets, catapults, and staged explosion and combustion events. This video shows a squadron of 56 remote-controlled toy helicopters. They rise into the air, collide with each other, carom off the ceiling and walls, and finally die in mechanical spasms on the floor. The effect is both humorous and disturbing, as the toys seem to transform into a swarm of gigantic insects intent on their own self-destruction.
"Swiss artist Roman Signer makes work that seeks to unbind normative space and time. His film, video and photographic works deal with their natural settings and give little pause to contemplate the urban rumblings of the world at large. The body of this practice comprises simple, elegant forms, animated and detonated to elucidate the cinematic ideas of suspense, climax and conclusion. His best-known works are Super 8 films and video wherein the artist stages a spectacular event, or makes a banal moment spectacular in its slapstick simplicity.”
Aimee Walleston (Art in America)
Courtesy: Roman Signer; Galerie Martin Janda, Vienna
