Itinerant Couple 2, 2006, The Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
28 x 56 x 50 inches each, 2006, Cement and shopping carts, Alison Ransom Dreyfuss Memorial Garden at the Newark Museum
Itinerant Couple 2 resembles a pair of chaise lounge chairs you might see in a shaded backyard. Nancy Cohen constructed this work in homage to a homeless couple she sees regularly in her neighborhood. The chairs' steel-tubed underlying structure and wheels are derived from shopping carts like those used by the couple. The cement surface references the usual hard ground of an urban environment, while the impressions of belts criss-crossing the work suggest the need to hold one's belonging together. These chairs, now nestled beneath the Garden's glorious copper beach tree remind the artist of two figures in conversation.
From the brochure Out There, 2006 New Jersey Fine Arts Annual by Elizabeth Venn, The Newark Museum