Out There: The Newark Museum By Beth A. Venn, Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art . . . Cohen is interested in her work not only as formal sculpture, but in the ideas and reference embedded both in the work itself and in the environment where it is sited. The idea for her Itinerant Couple sculptures evolved over a period of time and was inspired by a homeless couple that Cohen observed in a park near her home. She would see them with all of their belongings strapped together, the clothes cinched with cords or belts. Cohen's sculpture is her symbolic gesture toward this pair. Perched beneath the tree, the chairs appear as two figures in conversation. They are bulky, irregular and imperfect. The impression of belts pressed into them is another understated reference to the human form. The physical structure within the concrete of Itinerant Couple 2 is the framework and wheels of actual shopping carts. For those who inspect the work closely, that element provides yet another clue to Cohen's subtle but poignant work.