TONY COKES LET YOURSELF BE FREE

For over three decades, the media artist Tony Cokes (b. Richmond, Va., 1956, lives and works in Providence, R.I.) has made work that scrutinizes the ideology and affective politics of media and pop culture. Based on a fundamental critique of the representation and visual commodification of African-American communities in film, television, commercials, and music videos, Cokes has developed a si ngular form of video essay that radically rejects representational imagery. He employs strategies of appropriation that are widely used in musi...[Read more]