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These videos are introduced as three from a series of five promotional
videos. In fact, Cokes' tapes are not designed to promote anything, rather to
question the use and value of pop music as a culturally significant
(promotional) form(at). Each of the three tapes consists of appropriated text
set to 'post-rock' soundtracks. "Materials: text improvised by t.cokes, based
on received ideas, rawk criticism, album and song titles, lyrics, etc." The
music selected for each piece is as aware of its own references as much as it
is celebrating them. The texts are serious just as they dare you to take them
seriously. The visual design is constructed entirely from the character
generator: music videos without faces and without a product. Slogans and
short statements are presented in a ceaseless roll, at times, multiple lines
overlapping - visual sound bytes or theoretical headlines. We are challenged
to read and ingest these words that come faster than we can take them in, as
we listen to the music that suggests parallel reference. According to Seth
Price, the composer for '3#', his score is a "textual appropriation," a music
structure based on the song 'The Model' by Kraftwerk. '3#' ends with the
onscreen quote "I do not fetishize good German pop, I do not fetishize good
German pop." Cokes is referring to Price's contrived electro-pop, as well
as, most-likely to a John Baldessari video in which a performer writes
repeatedly on a black board, "I will not make any more boring art." In the
closing credits for '2@', Cokes notes further historic reference at the end of
'2@' with, "Inspiration: Rock My Religion. Form: Television Delivers People."
Here, he is referring to the classic video art essays by Dan Graham and
Richard Serra, respectively. As with 'Rock My Religion', Cokes takes the
concept of a subjective historical document. In this case, we are presented
with a personalized chronology of the last 40 years of rock and roll, with
icons reduced to encapsulating phrases. History centered on our own record
collections.
1960s - Motown: The Sound of Young America? The Beatles as a Studio
Practice. 1970s - David Bowie: Chameleon Style as Pop Content Vol. 1.0. Art
Rock: Inflation and Implosion. Disco: How to Begin a Destructive Loop. 1980s
- Madonna: Chameleon Style as Pop Content Vol. 2.0. Sampling as Critical
Technique for an Invisible Generation. 1990s - The Revenge of the Producers.
Who's The Whore and Who's The Trick Under Capital? Welcome to SWIPE Country
As with much of Coke's previous videotapes, writings and installations,
including his work with the collaborative groups X-PRZ and SWIPE 1.0, he puts
the music, texts and images that he appropriates in quotes. He is both
critical and questioning of their value, just as he seems to be questioning
his own role in appreciating that which he is critiquing.
– Stephen Vitiello
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2@ – Music by Swipe 1.0 (1997), DV mastering, end credits Scott Pagano. Text, concept, editing Tony Cokes
3# – Music 'Hutter/Bartos' 1979 by Seth Price (2001), text quotations Morrissey, animation and editing Scott Pagano. Text, concept, direction Tony Cokes
6^ – Music 'Init: A Song for Cynical #4' by Damian Kulash (1996), text quotations Morrissey, animation and editing Scott Pagano. Text, concept, direction Tony Cokes
Tony Cokes ° 1956, Richmond USA
Lives and works in Providence, USA
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