This video still depicts four people in costume. From left to right: a man in baroque apparel with a curly white wig and pouting lips; a person whose face is hidden by a dark stocking mask; a woman in a pink dress with a raised index finger; a person with a light blue mask like the head of a stuffed toy.
Sculpture, drawings, performance, texts, films – John Bock combines many different media in his installations and exhibitions to create a manic world theatre.
“Cowwidinok” is a work in several parts: a closed metal box containing nine miniature stage sets with a peep hole on one side, plus two video projections. A camera moves around inside the box filming the tiny sets and figures. It is as if Bock had mounted an exhibition in mini format. The live feed is transmitted to the exhibition space via one of the beamers, bringing its insights from deep inside the case. The other beamer projects Bock’s film “Cowwidinok”, an opulent baroque tale and total art work, in larger-than-life dimensions. The artist worked with actors to make this film at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn during his exhibition “Im Modder der Summenmutation” (2013/14). The rooms dictate the set: furniture pokes through walls and links spaces into organic systems. The actors’ props and costumes take on a life of their own, acquiring their own agency alongside the characters.
COWWIDINOK
2015
Installation of 9 miniature stages in a closed metal box with a peephole, live-projection from a movable camera inside the box, projection of the video "Cowwidinok", 82:30 min
164 x 65 x 40 cm, projection variable
Supported with funds of the State of Berlin - Senate Department for Culture and Europe, 2016
