Sarah Oppenheimer & Tony Cokes: Sensitive Instrument 

Production | Acquisition Grant

In their first-ever collaboration, Tony Cokes and Sarah Oppenheimer’s Sensitive Instrument is an interactive multimedia installation that draws on the strengths of both artists’ unique practices. Cokes is renowned for his spare video essays that explore socio-political issues through pop culture, while Oppenheimer creates abstract sculptures whose spatial components edge into the territory of architecture. Merging form and content, this inaugural collaboration explores the possibility of relation between the two practices, creating the conditions for a free-ranging artistic exchange. Sensitive Instrument is sited at Transformer Station, FRONT’s primary exhibition hub and visitor center, and will convert the gallery’s gantry system into a mobile installation. Visitors may physically interact with Oppenheimer’s sculptures, which in turn manipulate the venue’s architectural elements through a programmed network, shifting the appearance and placement of Coke’s signature video work. Sensitive Instrument introduces viewers to the core themes of this year’s exhibition, which explores how art can serve as a change agent, a mode of healing, and an opportunity for transformation.