Ad Vice

Tony Cokes, member of the art collective X-PRZ and the band SWIPE, works with video and music in his art, employing the techniques of appropriation and re-presentation. ‘Ad Vice’ uses advertising slogans, rock lyrics, and music videos as material. Sentence follows sentence, presented in an advertising-style typeface that overlays low-quality video recordings of rock musicians. Cokes confronts viewers with direct questions or suggestions, his sober statements oscillating between philosophical platitudes and advertising slogans. ‘Ad Vice’ refers to the world of music videos in order to turn their formal language against itself—as part of a subtle critique of the interplay between desire and commerce in a capitalist culture.