Roman Signer was born in Switzerland in 1938 and studied sculpture in Zurich and Lucerne before going on to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Poland. He has exhibited extensively in Switzerland and abroad and has had solo exhibitions at the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin and the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh among others. He has also exhibited in a number of group exhibitions including The Freak Show at the Musee d'Art Contemporain, Lyon in 2007 and Eye on Europe at MOMA, Museum of Modern Art, New York in 2006. Signer is represented by Hauser and Wirth Gallery and currently lives and works in St Gallen, Switzerland.

The work Leiter mit Ballonen (Ladder with Balloons), which is held in the Channel 4 collection was made in 1994.