Content, Context and Signification in the Work of Michael Asher

Michael Asher’s sculpture installation employing the same make and model of a modest travel trailer unmoored in the same sites and serial order in four contiguous iterations of the decennial exhibition Skulptur Projekte (1977, 1987, 1997, 2007) highlights the complexity of signification. The shifting context of production and reception rendered each of the four sculpture installations considerably different. Spatial, temporal and socio-historical factors imbued the artworks with a unique visibility, irony, rhythm and sense. The distinctness of the four nearly identical-looking sculpture installations raises vital questions concerning signification and how artworks gain definition.