Since 1990 Rob List has created minimal movement solos he has performed in theaters and galleries in Europe and the USA. He generally performs these for small groups in intimate settings. His solo work includes both pieces from repertoire as well as incidental commissioned works.
'During the past several years he has worked largely on group pieces; however he also created several solo works: Milk of Human Kindness in September 2006 for Association A-R in Paris, 'Engrave' at Frascati Amsterdam in December 2006 , and a specially-commissioned version of 'Folly n.1' at Sideshow Gallery New York in the annual exhibition of American Abstract Artists.

Folly [2000]

This solo performance is the first in a series of "follies". Folly is an English word meaning "foolish action, undertaking or belief". It also refers to a form of landscape architecture, Follies were structures made by 18th century English and French gentry to enliven and demarcate their gardens - towers, obelisks, grottos, rustic monuments or other buildings - reflecting not only the obsessions of their creators but also their fascination with nature as something picturesque, frightening, or sublime.
This movement performance explores the double meaning of folly: an absurd and vain act as well as a structure erected in a world of "howling wilderness".

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Trompe L'Oeil [1999]

This performance solo focuses on the still-life form known as "trompe l'oeil" where objects in the painting are placed on a two-dimensional surface in such a way as to deceive the eye of the viewer.
This movement piece, like the others in the series, has as its theme the insubstantiality of life, but also in this case the insubstantiality of perception. Is the basket of fruit in the picture or in the room? In this performance what appears real may not be.

Ter Kloon [1999]

This second piece in a series over the double is a solo movement performance/video in which a figure explores the complex symmetries of his own body. Cloning is the scientific phenomenon whereby a complete genetic twin is produced from a single source, a form of replication rather than creation.
At the root of the genetic studies which eventually led to the process of cloning was the realization that symmetry is a beautiful but static force which must have outside influences to revitalize and generate itself into new forms..

Ninety Degrees Vanitas [1998]

A movement study using the 17th century genre of still-life painting called the 'vanitas', in which symbols of life's transience are depicted. Skulls and burning candles, mirrors and overturned glasses are among the elements that portray both life's vain pleasures and its insubstantiality.
In Ninety Degree Vanitas the performer creates a duet in a large mirror with his double without ever acknowledging its presence. Gradually the reflected image becomes more than just a copy of the real one.

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4GLM [1997]

The first in a series of performances about the double - creatures who resemble but are not quite human. The golem is a mythical creature summoned up by the mystical powers of medieval rabbis. According to the Hebrew scholar Gerschom Sholem, summoning up a golem was also a ritual of incantation that awakened the perceptive powers of its participants.
In 4GLM a figure appears in an awkward world too small for his body but too large for him to comprehend. The performance ends with an exhibition of writings. Premiere Triangle Artists Workshop Marseille and Amsterdam.

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Natura Morta [1996]

This solo performance is the first in a series of movement pieces exploring underlying themes in the genre of painting known as 'still-life', in which objects such as flowers, food, instruments or ornaments are displayed on a table. These objects, while unmoving, can be filled with vitality, a living presence with a quality of immanence. The paradoxes in 'still life' are inherent in the term itself, as well as in its equivalent Latinate term 'natura morta'.
'Life/death, still/moving, natural/unnatural' are the themes of this movement performance - in which an anonymous figure stands behind a table with a vase of flowers and begins a journey which crosses all of these paradoxical boundaries. Performed in Amsterdam, Marseille, New York, Zurich, Tilburg, and Prague. Winner of the 1997 Netherlands VSCD Mime Prize

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Figure Series [1990-4]

In the Figure Series an anonymous figure stands in a corner, exploring with sight, sound and touch the space of the actual present room. In modern painting 'figuration' implies the notion of the recognizable arising out of the abstract. Each of the four parts of the Figure Series, varying in length from twenty minutes to an hour, is essentially about perception and affect - how movement alone can engage emotion in the viewer.
The Figure Series originally developed out of idea sand images from the visual arts and literature - specifically the works of Francis Bacon and Samuel Beckett .
'A world is created out of sheer presence through extreme attention to detail in an atmosphere of constant expectation.'
Figure 1 premiered in the UFA gallery in Berlin in 1990, and has been performed in Amsterdam, New York, Marseille and Zurich. Figures 2,3,and 4 followed in 1991-1994, in a collaboration with Dutch performance artist Fried Mertens.

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