John Bock: Maltreated Frigate

This sophisticated artist’s book documents John Bock’s action art entitled Maltreated Frigate , the final high point of his performative work. The Maltreated Frigate , which premiered in the State Opera Unter den Linden Berlin in the autumn of 2006, is a performance in 10 pictures - an artistic action between rock opera, absurd theatre, animated sculpture and puppet theatre. In an idiosyncratic universal language John Bock combines art, science and philosophy in a fragmented, self-reflective poetry which stresses the procedural. The spectacle lives on in numerous colour illustrations; the complete libretto is a linguistic firework of great whimsical word creations, testimony to the artist’s pleasure of expression. The book is an invitation to follow the artist and his protagonists on a tour de force.