A powerful and provocative installation by Malcolm Cochran (Columbus, OH), Requiem is a memorial to deaths from genocide, massacres, warfare, and human suffering from social and economic injustices and exploitation. It merges mundane and discarded refrigerators repurposed as coffin-like sculptures with live and recorded performance of ancient, classical, and contemporary vocalese. The installation dovetails visual and aural elements at once startling, destabilizing, and moving. A new work situated in the West Gallery is complemented by two earlier sculptures by Cochran that serve as conceptual bookends: History Lesson (2011), a monumental sculpture that replicates an automobile rearview mirror featured in the Weston’s street-level space; and Washing Feet (1996-97), a split-video projection in the East Gallery depicting the age-old tradition of cleansing feet, which the artist observed while travelling through Heathrow Airport in London. Cochran is professor emeritus at Ohio State University and recipient of the 2017 International Sculpture Center’s Outstanding Educator Award.

A gallery talk and performance with the artist and eight vocal performers will be presented in the gallery on March 18 at 2:00 pm. Admission is free and open to the public. Light refreshments provided.