This computer illustration is part of a larger work, "notes of an educated woman," which will be exhibited in Fall 1995 at the Nexus Contemporary Arts Center in Atlanta. Cochran is a visual artist who constructs site-specific exhibition pieces: She calls them "set designs without plays." Her references include oral histories of women in her family and African- American women in her hometown, her own experiences with formal and informal modes of education, and readings by and about African-American women educators and cultural critics, such as the play To Be Young, Gifted and Black (1969) by Lorraine Hansberry and the essay "Black Women Intellectuals" by bell hooks (In Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life [with Cornel West], 1991). This illustration will be strewn across the walls of a circular room filled with images and audioworks which examine the representation of African-American women as thinkers and scholars.
Cochran's project articulates the unique mental and emotional experiences of African-American women. According to a recent study by the American Association of University Women, all girls experience a crisis of confidence at age 12. Why does this happen? What is the specific impact of this crisis of confidence upon young African-American women? African-American women face a double whammy: racism and sexism. Why is the significance that discussions of sexism are subordinated to those of racism -- or simply dismissed? Finally, where are "pictures" of African- American women as thinkers and scholars?
This illustration is an actual letter that Cochran received during the first years of her teaching career from her mother, Mabel Brewer Cochran.
Marie T. Cochran resides and works in Athens, Georgia. She is on leave from the Art Department at Georgia Southern University, where she is an Assistant Professor. Recently, she was awarded a 1995-96 grant from the Southern Arts Federation. Her installation, , will be displayed at the Smithsonian Institution from September 22, 1995 - March 3, 1996, as part of the travelling exhibition entitled, Equal Rights & Justice.
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