Jacob Cohen

video of a solo performance filmed and recorded at Silver Chord studio in Brooklyn

I met Prakash Churaman while working at Rikers Island. He was 15 when he was arrested for a murder he did not commit and was coerced by police into making a false confession. Without any other evidence against him I decided to advocate on his behalf and try to help him beat his case. This is the story of how it happened.

performance by Jacob Cohen. Filmed and recorded by Kenneth Edwards on April 30th, 2016 at the Bedford Avenue L platform in Brooklyn.

creating an electric cello from a horseshoe crab shell I found on the beach

a performance for my good friend Robert Brylewski the famous Polish punk rock and reggae musician who was murdered in Warsaw in 2018. This performance was filmed in the Powazki Military Cemetery in Warsaw Poland

video of a sound workshop I ran as part of the Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art in 2020

photo taken during a workshop at Rikers Island Correction Center in New York, NY in 2016. One of the few photos from my time there as photography is not allowed in the facility

The images below are a selection of drawings from my time working at Rikers Island correctional facility. I drew over 500 portraits and life drawings from there which were displayed in a solo show at the Queens Museum in New York City titled “Dispatches from the Ghost Ship” in 2018

video from the closing of my solo show of life drawings from my time working at Rikers Island at the Queens Museum after having the show censored by the NYC Department of Corrections and taken down after just one week of the planned monthlong show

Jacob Cohen’s Studio Without Walls program performs live at Carnegie Hall.

Guerrilla Theater group collaboration with Non Grata performance group from Estonia called Melting Point January 2024 following Trump’s Inauguration in New York City, NY

a documentary film about performing in Japan, Thailand and India from 2013

Collaboration with Pratima Dubay and Ravi Charran from 2021. Pawel Althamer asked me to make a video that included a flame of some kind and this was the result.

Crackhead Barney performing Tell Me I’m Normal at Saint Mary the Virgin Church and Times Square at the Offerings performance series in Manhattan on 4-4-25. I play improvised cello to support her performances and react in realtime to her movements since 2012

Musical collaboration with various artists during a road trip around the United States 2015

Robot Moonjuice – vocals Jacob Cohen – cello filmed and edited by Josh Milowe 2013 in Brooklyn, NY

I met Song Zhao through a theater director I met in Beijing who had worked with him in the past. I invited him to come to the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing where I was doing a two week residency as part of Pawel Althamer’s Draftsmen’s Congress. He ended up coming twice, and this is a segment of the second meeting.

Jacob Cohen performing “Meditation #4” at Sofar New York on February 25th, 2017.

collaboration between HOMO and Rabbistravinsky filmed October 5th, 2023 in the back yard of Sonoscopia in Porto, Portugal. HOMO – guitar with a broken neck and a rock stuck under the strings, leaves, stones Rabbistravinsky – 3-string cello made from sticks and goat skin. we couldn’t find an amp so we made due with an acoustic collaboration.

Cohen Brothers Creative Freedom Mural Workshop at TOAST in Albany, NY 2018

Jacob performs at the Albany Free School while his brother Max facilitates the creation of a mural in memorial of Gabriella Grimes. filmed and edited by Bawin Suchak

creativity workshop with children from 2017

This is the first documentary about my work from my 2012 trip to New Orleans to perform in the street during the month leading up to Mardis Gras. I was staying next to a young filmmaker named Patrick Rulh that decided to document part of my trip. The year before I had decided to quit my job to street perform full time in the subway in New York City.