ROMAN SIGNER — Fast Changes / Schnelle Veränderungen, Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, 1985

Roman Signer, Fast Changes / Schnelle Veränderungen. Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Stuttgart, 1985. Exhibition: 22 June–13 July 1985. Staple-bound softcover; 28 pages, 29 × 21 cm; colour and black-and-white photographs; German and English. Edition of 1,000 copies.

Published for Signer’s 1985 exhibition at Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, this compact catalogue documents a group of actions and experiments involving barrels, rockets, spray cans, water, petrol, explosives and other ordinary materials subjected to sudden physical change. Several images operate as photographic records of events originally captured on Super-8 film.

The catalogue belongs to an important early period in Signer’s practice, two years before his participation in Documenta 8. Since the 1970s he had been extending sculpture into duration, acceleration and transformation, using simple objects and physical forces rather than conventional sculptural materials. Photography and film became essential because many of the works existed only briefly.

The interesting shift happens when the event becomes paper. An explosion lasts seconds; the catalogue remains. A rocket rises, water falls, a barrel moves, an object disappears — and photography converts each action into something that can circulate independently of the original work.

The publication therefore sits somewhere between exhibition catalogue, photographic sequence and surviving evidence. What was temporary becomes reproducible. Force becomes image. The document becomes the stable form of an unstable sculpture.

Condition: Good. Rubbing and surface scratching to the red wrappers, with general edge and corner wear consistent with handling and age. Interior appears well preserved, with light age toning visible.

Securely packed; tracked UK and international shipping available.