Steven Leyden Cochrane

Education

2009MFA Visual Arts, University of Windsor (projected graduation date)

2006 BFA Painting, Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) (summa cum laude)

Group Exhibitions

2008 South of Detroit , LeBel Gallery, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON

2007 TAPAS: An Arts Sampler, TECO Theater, Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Tampa, FL

2006 BFA Commencement Exhibition, MICA, Baltimore, MD

2006 Reconstruction (collaborative installation) William and Nancy Oliver Gallery, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL

2005 Winter Warmer, AceArtInc, Winnipeg, MB Canada

2005 Juried Undergraduate Exhibition, MICA, Baltimore, MD

2003 Juried Foundation Exhibition, MICA, Baltimore, MD

2002 Pink Flamingos, Gallery 301, Tampa, FL

2002 National League of American Pen Women Masters Exhibition, Hillsborough Community College, Tampa, FL (best in show)

2001 Next Generation, Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL (award of merit)

Residencies

2008 University of Windsor Summer Studio Residency

Publications

2007 Stylus Magazine, August/September 2007 Issue (cover art and design).

Awards/Scholarships

2006 President's Excellence Scholarship (University of Windsor)

2007 International Graduate Student Scholarship (University of Windsor)

Dean's list Fall 2002, Fall 2003, Spring 2004, Fall 2004, Spring 2005 (MICA)

2005 MICA Achievement Award

2004 MICA Achievement Award

2002 ARTS Scholarship (MICA)

2002 Academic Achievement Award (MICA)

Visiting Artist Lectures/Workshops

2007 Worshop on traditional egg-tempera painting, Howard W. Blake High School, Tampa, FL

2007 Visiting artist lecture, Howard W. Blake High School, Tampa, FL

Professional Experience

2006 Web Design, PLATFORM Gallery. (Artist-run centre, Winnipeg, MB)
http://www.platformgallery.org

2006 Web Design, Aceartinc. (Artist-run centre, Winnipeg, MB)
http://www.aceart.org

2006 Web Design, Liz Garlicki (Artist)
http://www.lizgarlicki.ca

2006 Web Design, Katherine Kesselring (Artist)
http://www.katherinekesselring.com

2005 Web design, Jessica Koroscil (Illustrator)
http://www.housefires.ca

email: wreckingball@gmail.com

Making Friends crocheted acrylic yarn, polyester fiberfill and buttons

2005-06

Making Friends Is Hard Work (Bear) upholstered canvas, chalk ground and egg tempera

2006

Making Friends Is Hard Work (Duck) upholstered canvas, chalk ground and egg tempera

2006

Making Friends Is Hard Work (Tiny Lion) upholstered canvas, chalk ground and egg tempera

2006

Making Friends Is Hard Work (Falling Puppy) upholstered canvas, chalk ground and egg tempera

2006

Making Friends Is Hard Work (Falling Turtle) upholstered canvas, chalk ground and egg tempera

2006

Making Friends Is Hard Work (Falling Elephant) upholstered canvas, chalk ground and egg tempera

2006

Making Friends Is Hard Work (Jumping Elephant) upholstered canvas, chalk ground and egg tempera

2006

Making Friends Is Hard Work (Jumping Cat) upholstered canvas, chalk ground and egg tempera

2006

Making Friends Is Hard Work (Petit Ami) upholstered canvas, chalk ground and egg tempera

2006

Making Friends Is Hard Work (Mother and Baby) upholstered canvas, chalk ground and egg tempera

2006

Best Friends Forever (Paragone) oil on copper, mounted on MDF

2006

Friends for Life (Freddie) crocheted cotton yarn, polyester fiberfill, chalk ground and egg tempera

2006

Friends for Life (Darla) crocheted cotton yarn, polyester fiberfill, chalk ground and egg tempera

2006

Friends for Life (Tiny) crocheted cotton yarn, polyester fiberfill, chalk ground and egg tempera

2006

Friends for Life (Chloe) crocheted cotton yarn, polyester fiberfill, chalk ground and egg tempera

2006

Friends for Life (Lil' Quacker) crocheted cotton yarn, polyester fiberfill, chalk ground and egg tempera

2006

Friends for Life (Brutus) crocheted cotton yarn, polyester fiberfill, chalk ground and egg tempera

2006

IVcrocheted acrylic yarn, polyester fiberfill and IV pole top

2005-06

Happy New Year! mulberry paper, glue, fabric dye, cardboard, string, paperclips and IV pole top

2006

Condolencescrocheted and knotted cotton and acrylic yarn, glass floral vases and IV poles

2006

1 Year, 111 Days single channel digital video

2006

For the purposes of my work, let’s consider representation to be an impulse towards the accomplishment of one of the following aims: the rendering-present of that which is absent or the rendering-permanent of that which would otherwise be lost.

In both instances, the underlying concern is one of proximity. Representation is always, for me, in some capacity, a response to the fear of loss: we pursue representation so that we might keep near and fixed in time that from which we cannot bear the thought of being separated. One copies, one depicts those things one feels slipping away or suddenly out of reach; one seeks to reinstate those things whose absence cannot be assimilated with any understanding one may have of how things simply ought to be.

For all one's good intentions, however, the representational act is, invariably, a failed attempt at fabricating nearness. In the course of things, actions become objects, objects become surfaces, surfaces become appearances, and the faith we put in those appearances, in our presumption of their equivalence to that which they resemble, underscores the inadequacy of any representational project. The object of visual representation, be it portrait, landscape, diagram, photograph, or what have you, presents us with a new locus for investment—emotional, conceptual, optical, etc. As such, each reiteration, though executed out of a longing for proximity, can serve only to create further distance.

Even as representation would appear to abridge the rupture between a remembered past and lived experience, it does violence to the very thing it would seek to preserve: representation denies loss, but representation cannot mitigate it. Representation is failed magic: it's calling out the names of the dead and setting their places at the table; it's the misplaced conviction that if one can still see something, it can still be real.

Using the tools at my disposal, I mount unsuccessful attempts to bring things back. I see my work as being located in the tension between the effort of attempted retrievals, the potential beauty resulting from that effort, and the ultimate failure of that effort to extenuate the shock of absence.

I make work that is largely about work, about effort. I engage in improvised rituals of displacement and return, wherein I make something, conceal it, and, in so doing, destroy it (within a framework where visibility can be conflated with real presence, so too can invisibility constitute real absence), or else I concern myself with things I feel to be out of reach, making works in which meaning becomes attenuated, their forms insufficient. My subject matter consists of objects tied up with fondness, sentiment, or closeness: in my practice, their images become fixed even as their irretrievability becomes more absolute.

3. If at any time I should have a terminal condition and my attending physician has determined that there can be no recovery from such condition and my death is imminent, where the application of life-prolonging procedures and "heroic measures" would serve only to artificially prolong the dying process, I direct that such procedures be withheld or withdrawn [...]

Directive to Physicians (No Heroic Measures To Be Taken)