John Bock

Bock, who was recently invited by Harald Szeemann to participate in this summer's Venice Biennale, has provoked all manner of facile critical comparisons: Beuys, of course, but also the Viennese Aktionists, not to mention Paul McCarthy's slimy-abject playpens and Jason Rhoades's sloven-abject playpens - even Matthew Barney's sweeping epics. In a manner that the art of Beuys and Barney does not, the nucleus of Bock's efforts springs from deep roots in modern and avant-garde theater, above all in the "live." What's left over from the performances become trace elements that indeed look like the absurd constructions they are, but in no way replace or fully stand in for the artist's work.

To watch Bock move through his tower, to witness his melodramatic lectures and preposterous vignettes, is to see him propelled by a tradition unlike those of various art-world compatriots - in McCarthy's case, TV; in Barney's, film. And in this respect his work addresses concerns that are more proper to the theater than the gallery. Indeed, he can be seen to negotiate the longstanding polemic between the Brechtian narrative and the Absurdist poetic image, between a social and a psychological reality. Should Bock continue along the trajectory predicted by his exhibitions and lectures, he will be in a position to bring together under the sign of theater what had once seemed antithetical. He might even confirm another prediction of Esslin's, this one from 1961: "It is my contention that, far from being contradictory and mutually exclusive methods, these two styles [Brechtian and Absurdist] are complementary and could well be fused in the future. And it is here that I see at least a possibility for a new and exciting step forward for the avant garde of drama."

Ronald Jones, chair of the Visual Arts Division, School of the Arts, Columbia University, is a New York-based artist.

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