Ad Vice

US 1999, Video, 6:30 min, OV

Working with both video and music forms as a member of the art collective X-PRZ and the band SWIPE, Tony Cokes employs appropriation and re-presentation in his art. In 'Ad Vice' his source material includes advertising slogans, rock lyrics, and music videos. Cokes offers one phrase after another, rendered in an advertisement-ready typeface, superimposed on degraded video images of rock musicians. Addressing the viewer with direct questions or suggestions, Cokes poses bald statements that could be philosophical platitudes or commercial tag-lines. 'Ad Vice' inhabits the realm of the music-video, only to use that form's language against itself in a subtle critique of the interactions of desire and commerce in a capitalist culture.