A new exhibition from German interdisciplinary multimedia artist John Bock at Regen Projects offers an installation of related materials described as “sculptural objects, drawings, collages and films” by the notoriously eccentric, creatively omnivorous figure. As Bock's studio and performance practice involves every possible configuration of two-, three- and four-dimensional media in heavy rotation, consensus eludes even his most enthusiastic admirers as to his main orientation. His areas of interest occupy a broadly contested ground of sociological curiosity, in a melding of action, ideas, fine and pop art, politics and ceaseless personal expression. Central to navigating these choppy philosophical and sensorial seas is the notion of transformation — literally the causing of something to become something else entirely. A new large-scale sculpture in the show physically contains within its overall structure various objects, many of which were featured in a corresponding pair of films. The films depict a two-part process, or experiment, in which a series of pseudorandom objects are frozen in blocks of ice in a laboratory setting, only to be brought to the studio and thawed. Whereas the sculptural installation presents the results and evidentiary materials relating to a closed-door alchemy session, the films make the audience witnesses to the actual transformative processes, solving rather than deepening the mystery. Each in its way represents an archetype of how the artist might function in society, as both the asker and answerer of enduringly shadowy magic.

Sat., Feb. 5, 6 p.m.; Tuesdays-Saturdays. Starts: Feb. 5. Continues through March 5, 2011

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