In 1992, while I was an undergraduate focusing on sculpture at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, I helped to install Malcolm Cochran’s In Maine (1989) in the galleries. The work consisted of, among other things, the still-operating guts of 19 refrigerators. I was fascinated by the expansive realm of installation art at the time–Christian Boltanski, Ann Hamilton, Milton Becerra–and Cochran’s work ran with that pack. Beyond the scope and labor, his works reveal a profound and steady mindfulness of the small and often phenomenological occurrences from which he extrapolates large gestures. In looking at Dutch Shoes (1996), Buffet of Memory and Anticipation (1992–99), and Private Passage (2005), one notes the solemn tenor of the attention paid to occurrences and ideas. That attention has affected how I and many other people–students and viewers alike–engage with small things. …see the entire article in the print version of October’s Sculpture magazine.
