By Leila Ugincius

A Virginia Commonwealth University alum known for his video works that recontextualize historical and cultural moments has been named a 2024 MacArthur Fellow, receiving what is commonly called a “genius grant” from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Tony Cokes, who received his Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture from the VCU School of the Arts in 1986, has research interests that include multimedia installation, documentary theory and practice, sound in relation to image, and critical uses of popular culture.

Cokes said he enjoys thinking about the political possibilities and hidden meanings of media that surrounds us day-to-day. 

“I began to see the differences between the world as represented, say, in television or in media in general, and the world that I lived in,” said Cokes, a professor of modern culture and media at Brown University who also was a visiting critic in the VCUarts sculpture program in 2021. “I think it's a useful and healthy thing to be aware of the contradictions under which we live.

“I became interested in popular music at one point, and that kind of led me, actually, to leave out the found footage and other cultural artifacts and concentrate on text as a kind of medium, in relationship to music. And that's kind of become my go-to methodology.”

Cokes’ works have appeared in media festivals and art exhibitions worldwide, including at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. His signature style is deceptively simple: changing frames of text against backgrounds of solid bright colors or images, accompanied by musical soundtracks.

His work often samples and recombines textual, musical and visual fragments. Source materials include found film footage, pop music, journalism, philosophy texts and social media. The unexpected juxtapositions in his works highlight the ways in which dominant narratives emerging from our oversaturated media environments reinforce existing power structures.

In some ways, Cokes said, his work mimics the codes of advertising, “but the point is not to sell something but to try to get people to think critically about what they're seeing and hearing. I hope that people, to some extent, will be surprised and find, maybe, new connections or a different relation to the things that they find familiar to maybe think a little more complexly about the world they live in.”

The MacArthur Foundation awards its “genius grants” to individuals in a variety of fields who have shown exceptional originality in and dedication to their creative pursuits. Fellows receive $800,000 stipends that are bestowed with no conditions; recipients may use the money as they see fit. Nominated anonymously by leaders in their respective fields and considered by an anonymous selection committee, recipients learn of their selection only when they receive a call from the MacArthur Foundation just before the public announcement.