Teun Hocks untitled 2000 Teun Hocks untitled 1990

Hocks chronicles the adventures of the everyman in everyday situations, but at that elusive moment where we see the underlying absurdity of life. That instant that somehow lets us go on. One immediate artistic comparison would be to his benelux compatriot, Rene Magritte, but Hocks is more absurdist than surrealist. His work comes not from the unconscious, but more from the careful observation of our own foibles and shortcomings. While Magritte has his bowler-hatted hero looking over a hedge from a ladder, Hocks's more nattily dressed fellow has pulled up a chair and stuck his head right into a landscape painting to see what's around the corner. Later, our hero suffers from a strange bit of short-sightedness as he peers at keyholes. As I said, I laughed for weeks while reading this book, but I also took a lot of instruction on the nature of art and the artist. You can shoot stars out of the sky or cry a waterfall, yet in the same day try to shield a candle's flame while the sun rises behind you. A well-recommended read.

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