Roman Signer: Kajak with Tube (2024)

One of the fundamental components of Roman Signer's artistic vocabulary is the kayak. He first saw one on the River Sitter during his youth, and thereafter took up kayaking as a sport himself. Following an accident, however, he gave it up and instead transposed the object into his artistic universe. Now, he might take it on a bumpy ride along cobbled country roads, sitting in the kayak as a car drags it along. The cows he encounters along the way are bemused by the bizarre vehicle suddenly passing by. Often, the artist also experiments with explosions in water and kayaks.
Kayak I (1988), on display in the exhibition, which has been dismantled into seven parts and transformed into a sculpture, was also created using circular, precisely arranged detonations. Here, Roman Signer explores the explosion as a means of creating form rather than destruction. For the exhibition at the Kunsthaus Zürich, he has produced two completely new works that once again find uses for his favourite craft. In Kayak with Tube (2024), Signer transforms the everyday object into a kind of organism with water regularly pumped through its innards to set it in motion. By contrast, Kayak (2024) rides on an imagined wave from the ceiling of this sculptural landscape arranged in the large exhibition gallery.

Roman Signer: Kajak with Tube (2024). Part of the exhibition “Roman Signer: Landscape” at Kunsthaus Zürich. Zürich (Switzerland), April 3, 2025.