A burst of bright color now greets everyone strolling through Millennium Park. The Art Institute of Chicago has turned the windows of its Bluhm Family Terrace into a giant billboard for its newest exhibition, “Tony Cokes: On Boredom,” on view from October 3, 2026 through March 14, 2027.
The glowing windows face the park and the street, spelling out the joyful phrase “Let yourself be free” — borrowed from Aretha Franklin’s 1968 recording of “Think.” It’s a nod to Chicago’s own musical history: Franklin sang often in the city with her father, a prominent pastor and civil rights leader, and Chicago DJ Pervis Spann gave her the title “Queen of Soul” at Bronzeville’s Regal Theater in 1964.
The installation, Cokes’ first public outdoor presentation in Chicago, also includes a freestanding sign with two playful lines from cultural theorist Mark Fisher: “We don’t have the freedom to be bored anymore” and “There’s a set of forces that want us to be permanently anxious.” Together they ask what freedom really means in our fast-moving, always-connected world.
Music is at the heart of Cokes’ art, so the terrace plays a soundtrack of songs he chose to resonate with Chicago and the theme of freedom, audible during museum hours. His vibrant text-based works remix words from pop music, media and history into video, signs and lightboxes that make familiar language feel brand new.
Photo: Art Institute of Chicago
