Objects

When Teodor Bok places his war vehicle on four golden balls with two opulent limbs (red and blue) attached as some sort of bumpers, war becomes a grotesque, rather than a cruel and horrific event. Bok very often mitigates the expression of his works by playful irony. This sculpture exemplifies it perfectly – at the end of the tank’s barrel, a gold-plated twisted spike with two sticks is added. The turret is on one side decorated with a five-pointed star, on the other with two intertwined strings creating the cross of St Andrew’s. A slender column forrms the base of the construction, while its ``head`` – literally – is a lean, long face, with a big letter X on its forehead and with wooden hearts glued to its cheeks. A plait made of strings hangs down from the back of the ``head``. The construction of the sculpture, made of different wooden pieces of different shapes and sizes nailed to the core, is strengthened with strings. Letters and number are carved in some of the planks – K on the back, C / H 9 at the front on the right, Q on the left. Unpainted, flat board with the imprinted words HAUT MEDOC CRU BO is placed at the back. It is probably part of a wine crate. The grotesqueness of this sculpture leads to some cruel satire, or rather the pastiche of dread.

Renata Piątkowska