{"id":874,"date":"2010-04-01T12:45:31","date_gmt":"2010-04-01T17:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newyorkarttours.com\/blog\/?p=874"},"modified":"2011-08-01T12:59:02","modified_gmt":"2011-08-01T17:59:02","slug":"john-bock-at-anton-kern-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newyorkarttours.com\/blog\/2010\/04\/01\/john-bock-at-anton-kern-gallery\/","title":{"rendered":"John Bock at Anton Kern Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
John Bock, installation view, 2010. Photograph courtesy of Anton Kern Gallery, New York.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The remnants of John Bock\u2019s current performance at Anton Kern Gallery\u2014a floor littered with Plexiglas sheets covered in marker drawings, smiley-face stickers and sausage slices; a suitcase full of handmade, low-tech mechanisms\u2014speak to the artist\u2019s willingness to mine the ridiculous, grotesque and nonsensical in order to build fantastical, alternative realities. The new work, including two videos shot in Korea and a series of wall sculptures, offsets confusion with absurdity, striking an appealing balance between eccentricity and humor.<\/p>\n

Bock\u2019s videos feature an assortment of antiheroes who use a revolving lineup of devices to navigate unfamiliar terrain. The live performance distills this same sort of activity, via a hired dancer who tests a series of contraptions cobbled together from wood, stuffing and masking tape, as Bock diagrams his actions in rapid-fire sketches on Plexi. Like an artistic MacGyver, Bock\u2019s resourcefulness in crafting, say, a sandbag-like weapon out of a pair of tights enables his characters to meet the challenges of an illogical world.<\/p>\n

Just as performance partially decodes Bock\u2019s frenetic, abstract diagrams, a mini horror movie,\u00a0B\u00fcsche (Box)<\/em>, pokes fun at the psychological drama of a longer video titled\u00a0Para-Schizo, ensnarled<\/em>, in which two muttering loners employ totems and devices to walk, eat and engage in a destructive love affair. Their tools don\u2019t fix anything: One character meets an abject death, the other finds a secluded peace, suggesting that while life may present us with obstacles, our efforts to overcome them\u2014reasonably or not\u2014are still valiant.<\/p>\n

Originally published in Time Out New York, issue 756, March 25 – 31, 2010.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The remnants of John Bock\u2019s current performance at Anton Kern Gallery\u2014a floor littered with Plexiglas sheets covered in marker drawings, smiley-face stickers and sausage slices; a suitcase full of handmade, low-tech mechanisms\u2014speak to the artist\u2019s willingness to mine the ridiculous, grotesque and nonsensical in order to build fantastical, alternative realities. The new work, including two … <\/p>\n

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