ART-PRESENTATION: David Shrigley & John Bock

For its inaugural display at WINDOW, Anton Kern Gallery is presenting two works: a neon sign by David Shrigley (mis)spelling “Exibition” as well as a sculpture plus video by John Bock entitled “Vertikaler Fall des multiplen rechten Winkels”. David Shrigley plays with humour and honesty, working primarily with drawing, as well as sculpture, installation and animation. John Bock is a multi-media artist primarily known for his performances.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Anton Kern Gallery Archive

David Shrigley is best known for his distinctive drawing style and works that make satirical comments on everyday situations and human interactions. His quick-witted drawings and hand-rendered texts are typically deadpan in their humour and reveal chance utterings like snippets of over-heard conversations. Reoccurring themes and thoughts pervade his story telling capturing child-like views of the world, the perspective of aliens and monsters or the compulsive habits of an eavesdropper shouting out loud. While drawing is at the centre of his practice, the artist also works across an extensive range of media including sculpture, large-scale installation, animation, painting, photography and music. Shrigley consistently seeks to widen his public by operating frequently outside the gallery sphere such as in prolific artist publications and collaborative music projects.

John Bock’s sculptures, performances, and films emerged in the context of the work of such artists as Jason Rhoades, Paul McCarthy, Mike Kelley, and Joseph Beuys. Bock’s sculpture on view at WINDOW originated from an exhibition held at the gallery’s old Chelsea space in 2006. The show entitled “Mit Schisslaveng” consisted of a group of sculptures installed on the roof of the gallery. A slightly off-kilter spiral staircase took the visitor to the roof and out of the gallery environment into the unruly realm of Chelsea air space, where the rules for the art world and of NYC real estate seemed resolutely in flux. After the exhibition ended, the spiral staircase and the roof objects were disassembled, cut up and reassembled into what John Bock called “a forest of decision trees” consisting of five distinctly named sculptures and exhibited along with a film documenting John Bock’s roof performances. “Vertikaler Fall des multiplen rechten Winkels” is one of these decision trees and consists of a filing cabinet, two rocking chairs, and a section of the spiral staircase along with an array of objects that were used and charged with meaning in Bock’s performance. In its particular structural arrangement, “Vertikaler Fall des multiplen rechten Winkels” can be read as a three-dimensional diagram that, just like a seismograph, measured and predicted in 2006 not only the changes in Chelsea real estate but also the radical shifts in the art world at large that were about to gain dominance. The work is both image and proposal for the open-ended artwork that sheds light on the interrelationships between artist, artwork, recipient, and the market in a playfully instructive and open-minded manner.

Info: WINDOW, 91 Walker Street (corner of Walker and Lafayette Street), New York, Duration: 10/1-20/2/20, Days & Hours: Daily 00:00-24:00, www.antonkerngallery.com