Field of Corn

Field of Corn (with Osage Orange Trees) is a consise example of on of Cochran's outdoor commissions. The sire chosen for thepiece by Dublin, OH was a large traffic island, cut off from neighborhood subdivisions by two roads. In reseraching the site, Cochran discovered that th eland had been farmed fo 1800 years and had been owned by a leading corn hybridizer in the 1940s and '50s. To honor this endevor, Cochran placed 109 concrete ears of corn, each approximately six feet high, into the ground in even rows. The resulting piece refers naturally to a cornfield, but closely resemeble the identical white grave markers in Arlington National Cemetary. Cochran finished the piece by creating a row of text panels that explain the history of corn production and set them among Osage orange trees that existed as part of the sire and were traditionally used as windbreaks and field dividers. From Malcolm Cochran [re] collection, 1999.