{"id":33654,"date":"2019-11-22T14:30:33","date_gmt":"2019-11-22T14:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/?p=33654"},"modified":"2019-11-22T14:30:33","modified_gmt":"2019-11-22T14:30:33","slug":"if-ur-reading-this-its-2-late-vol-1-tony-cokes-new-exhibit-showcases-african-american-struggles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/if-ur-reading-this-its-2-late-vol-1-tony-cokes-new-exhibit-showcases-african-american-struggles\/","title":{"rendered":"If UR Reading This It\u2019s 2 Late: Vol.1: Tony Cokes’ new exhibit showcases African American struggles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump, Kanye West, Malcolm X, David Bowie all make an appearance in Tony Cokes\u2019 first UK solo exhibition, If UR Reading This It\u2019s 2 Late: Vol 1<\/i>.\u00a0 Cokes\u2019 video works combine political and social issues with cultural theory, mixing a range of different inputs e.g. sound, colour, music, quotes, text.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The exhibition in Goldsmiths CCA provides an opportunity to see a wide\u00a0range of powerful artworks made by the US-based artist dating back to the 1980\u2019s, alongside two new, custom-made films. Cokes\u2019 films confront the social\u00a0condition, as well as the specific prejudices and threats suffered by the African-American community.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Source: Martina Chausheva<\/p><\/div>\n

Cokes\u2019 artwork is all digital and uses a wide range of different music – minimal techno, tracks by Britney Spears and David Gray are referred to as \u2018The Disco\u2019, weaponizing popular music to traumatise, and music used to torture detainees in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The first display is named <\/span>\u2018The Morrissey Problem\u2019<\/span><\/i>, which shows singer-songwriter Morrissey\u2019s recent explicit association with far-right politics, and enunciates the profound frustration and disappointment Morrissey supporters feel.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the first floor, in three separate rooms, three different concepts are explored.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the Bridget Riley Gallery, <\/span>\u2018The Queen is Dead: Fragment 2\u2019, <\/span><\/i>Aretha Franklin\u2019s remixed vocals filled the room with thrill. Contrary to the joyful sound, the visuals sprung nostalgia. Whilst remembering her grace and elegance, a sighting of Barack Obama shedding a tear was brought up.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Source: Martina Chausheva<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018Mikrohaus, or the black atlantic?<\/span><\/i> in the Daskalopoulos Gallery explores the origin of minimal techno, uncovering its roots in Afro-American musical traditions such as soul and Chicago house.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the most captivating parts of the entire exhibition has to be in the Candida & Zak Gertler Gallery, where Cokes presents one of his newest works. <\/span>Testament A: MF FKA K-P X KE RIP<\/span><\/i> (2019) is most impactful in terms of the feelings that it provokes in the audience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The hypnotising effect of the trance music combined with the intensely bright colours on the screen contrast the important matters explored. His inspiration for this work comes from Kodwo Eshun\u2019s Mark Fisher Memorial Lecture, which mentions \u2018Black feminist Poethicists\u2019, the concept of \u2018blackness\u2019, and Kanye West\u2019s and Drake\u2019s take on real happiness in 21<\/span>st<\/span> century.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Source: Martina Chausheva<\/p><\/div>\n

The last segment of the exhibition features different stations at the basement floor, where numerous retro-style TV\u2019s show different short films which explore different social and cultural issues in society.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Source: Martina Chausheva<\/p><\/div>\n

The exhibition continues until 19<\/span>th<\/span> January 2020 <\/span><\/p>\n

Price: Free<\/span><\/p>\n

Address:\u00a0St James’s, New Cross, London SE14 6AD<\/p>\n

Words: Martina Chausheva<\/p>\n

Images: Martina Chausheva<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump, Kanye West, Malcolm X, David Bowie all make an appearance in Tony Cokes\u2019 first UK solo exhibition, If UR Reading This It\u2019s 2 Late: Vol 1.\u00a0 Cokes\u2019 video works combine political and social…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":476,"featured_media":33726,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,42],"tags":[351,553,579,1644,1645,1913,1951,2119,2128,3445,3769,4322,4933,4934,5722,5728,6393,6538,6753],"class_list":["post-33654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-entertainment","tag-african-american","tag-art","tag-arts","tag-cultural-issues","tag-culture","tag-donald-trump","tag-drake","tag-england","tag-entertainment","tag-kanye-west","tag-london","tag-music","tag-political-issues","tag-politics","tag-social-issues","tag-society","tag-tony-cokes","tag-uk","tag-voice-of-london"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/476"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}